Why Sam Warburton says ‘you just can’t escape’ 2025 British & Irish Lions tour hype ahead of Argentina clash

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Former British & Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton and ex-England forward Ben Kay looked ahead to this year's tour of Australia and explained how anticipation would have been building for several months, leading into the opener against Argentina on June 20. The duo also assessed Andy Farrell's selections for his coaching staff, and debated whether anyone else could be brought into the set-up.

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Sam Warburton stressed "you just can’t escape" the hype surrounding an upcoming British & Irish Lions tour, as the countdown continues ahead of this year’s opening match on Friday, June 20.

Andy Farrell’s side begin with a match against Argentina in Dublin before heading Down Under for nine matches in Australia, culminating with a third Test against The Wallabies on Saturday, August 2.

Anticipation ahead of the blockbuster tour has been fuelled further recently after Farrell confirmed his coaching set-up on Wednesday, and Warburton explained that this year’s Six Nations would have been dominated by thoughts of this summer’s tour.

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"When players tell you they don't think about a Lions tour, I'm telling you, they're thinking about it," he told TNT Sports.

"Of course, your team comes first, it always does. I'll be honest, the Six Nations I was involved in before Lions tours, you don't talk about it to the other players, but you think about it a lot.

"You know full well the way you play in the Six Nations is going to have a huge bearing [on your selection], because the coaches want to see how you perform in the highest-profile games with the pressure on.

"People like Maro Itoje, Jac Morgan and Finn Russell are going to be asking each other: ‘Are you the Lions captain?’ They’ll respond: ‘I don’t know, are you?’

"You just can't escape it as a player. They've got all that coming, which is great."

Farrell's assistant coaches for the tour will be Simon Easterby, John Fogarty, Andrew Goodman, Richard Wigglesworth, and John Dalziel.

Former England forward Ben Kay was asked if Farrell would further bolster his coaching ranks, and believes that the upcoming squad announcement on Thursday, May 8, will be interesting to see how many Irish players are omitted due to Farrell’s role as Ireland head coach.

"I genuinely don't know," he said. "I guess it'll be around the conversations they're having in their planning now as to whether they need anything extra.

"You could potentially bring in a consultant coach in different parts of the tour, so it'll be really interesting.

"The other thing is, you mentioned right at the beginning about not having too many Irish coaches. It might be difficult for the Irish players because if they're being left out by their international coaches, that's probably a more difficult dynamic than some of the players that are coming in.

"A year ago, there was probably going to be a load of [Irish] players in the starting team. If not, that's going to be a different dynamic."

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Warburton highlighted how strenuous Lions tours can be and the importance of having coaches that can provide an injection of energy at the right time.

"Lions tours are really hard. It's an enormous privilege, but it's hard. I remember New Zealand, for example, in 2017. It was about the fifth week in when we had a day where we could wake up and go back to bed in the same bed, so we weren't travelling, we weren't training.

"There were no sponsorship or commercial duties, and we had a day off. You're either travelling, you're training or on a plane. There were no days off for 30-odd days. So, you need coaches who have got energy.

"The Six Nations is very focused on the head coach, but I've listened to John Fogarty speak for two minutes and I thought he sounds great, but we don't get to hear him talk too often when he's in camp with Ireland.

"So having that right mix of characters will help bring up the energy of the players, particularly when you're deep in the tours. You need that, a bit of fatigue, a lot of travel. You need those guys to bring the energy up and that's really key."

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