Gavin Hastings picks his six Scots for Lions tour and why they can put down a marker this weekend
Gavin Hastings is still a draw at 62 as the crowds who gathered on Edinburgh’s Castle Street to watch him convert rugby balls through a sponsor’s logo will testify.
Temperatures had dipped below freezing but that didn’t deter punters from queueing for selfies with the great man and trying out their own kicking skills under the former full-back’s expert eye.
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Hide AdHe was in the capital’s West End at a launch event for the new British & Irish Lions jersey which will be worn on next year’s tour of Australia. Hastings, of course, helped make Lions history down under 35 years ago when he and brother Scott were key members of the squad that recovered from a first Test defeat to win the series 2-1. It remains the only time this has happened.
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“In a three-Test series, you don’t have much time to turn it around,” Hastings noted drily. “So, yeah, it was amazing.”
Hastings, who was the captain four years later in New Zealand, now sits on the Lions board and is relishing a return to Australia. The hope is that Scotland will be well represented, as they were in South Africa in 2021. Form and fitness will dictate, of course, but there are half-a-dozen Scots who Hastings would like to see on the plane, including the midfield trio of Finn Russell, Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones.
“Scotland seem to be playing with a lot of confidence just now,” he said. “Huw Jones and Sione are playing very, very well and you’ve got Finn in there so there’s a very good chance, I think, that the three of them will go.
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Hide Ad“The Scottish backs, in general, are going well. They’re not going to take everybody but I think those three could be a good combination. When Finn’s on his day, he is absolutely world class. And, you know, he does things that no other rugby player really does. And he plays with a smile on his face, which I think is very, very important. And I admire that in Finn.


“And then forwards-wise, I think Zander [Fagerson]’s an absolute shoo-in but he’s just got to keep himself fit. And if Glasgow keep going well and keep playing, then there’ll be a number of other guys. I like Rory Darge. I think he’s a super player. Jack Dempsey’s played really well. So let's stick with those six.
“There’s other players that have been there before. Duhan [van der Merwe], for example. He just needs to keep playing well. But it’s not what I think, it’s what Andy Farrell and his selectors think."
Scotland take on Australia on Sunday in the final match of their autumn Test campaign against opponents who have been highly impressive in beating England and Wales. They must defeat the Scots and then Ireland next weekend to emulate the Wallabies side of 1984 who completed the Grand Slam. Hastings believes Gregor Townsend’s squad have enough firepower to stop them in their tracks.
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Hide Ad“Absolutely. I mean, let’s put a marker down and do something that both England and Wales have not done. The Aussies are halfway towards a potential Grand Slam, they've given themselves a shot. And good on them.
“I think Australia have shown over the last two weekends what they're capable of. I mean, their full-back, Tom Wright, my goodness, he’s been fantastic. Brilliant last weekend [he scored a hat-trick against Wales]. The centre, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, the new young kid, is very, very good. And I’ve actually been impressed with the stand-off, Noah lolesio, as well. I think he's been excellent.
“But it's cold! It's like us going and playing at 35 degrees. It’s the reverse. It's going to be really freezing for them.


“I think Scotland are more than capable of winning the game, genuinely. But they're going to have to play well because Australia are a top side. They've beaten England and they've stuffed Wales.”
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Hide AdIf the Wallabies are able to complete a clean sweep in Europe it will add even more intrigue to next summer’s tour as Farrell’s Lions look to emulate Ian McGeechan’s class of ’89. Hastings considers himself privileged to have been part of it - and fortunate, too, because he almost missed out through injury.
“I was probably very lucky to go on the Lions tour because I missed the whole of the Five Nations,” he said. “I had a groin strain and was out for weeks and weeks and weeks. I remember Geech phoning me and saying, ‘look, if you can get back playing by the beginning of April, we’ll consider you for selection’.
“I was playing at London Scottish then. I played my first game back on April 1 against Leicester. I had been out for about three-and-a-half to four months.
“And obviously, because I was playing in England, we had a lot more 15-a-side games. Probably in Scotland at those times, the season would have ended at the end of March. So I wouldn't have had an opportunity.
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Hide Ad“Finlay Calder had captained Scotland just in that one season and was good enough to captain the Lions, and he was a great influence on everybody, the English players as well. He just did a brilliant job.”


But the Test series got off to an inauspicious start. The Lions lost the opener 30-12 in Sydney on 1 July, then their heaviest defeat by Australia.
“In the run-up to that first Test, there were lots of injuries,” explained Hastings. “So people were played out of position and we got hammered.
“My abiding memory of what happened was after the game. Clive Rowlands was our manager and he had been a great Welsh player, a great motivator. And he and Fin Calder had a brilliant relationship. And he got everyone in the changing room and he gave this impassioned speech. And he said, ‘that wasn’t us out there today, boys. We have to park that’. And he had his blazer on and he had his hand over the badge. And he said, ‘From now on’ - and I'll always remember it - ‘From now on, the badge - it only gets bigger. The badge gets bigger, boys. Come on!’.
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Hide Ad“And there was a resolve and a commitment there amongst the players. And it was extraordinary.
“And the following week, we played on the Tuesday against ACT in Canberra. And we were something like 15 or 18 points down at half-time. But they turned it around in the second half. And that was the making of the tour. Jerry Guscott, I think, played. Scott played. And they both got into the side for the second Test, playing alongside each other. And I'm not saying that was the difference but just that there was a resolve.
“And Clive Rowlands made that happen. It was amazing. It was amazing. And you ask anybody, I think, from that 89 Lions tour, they will remember the fact that we were all in that changing room after the first test.”
Hastings scored a try in the 19-12 win in the second Test. It was a brutal match dubbed ‘the Battle of Ballymore’ and the result set up a decider back in Sydney which the Lions edged 19-18 to clinch the series in thrilling fashion. A similarly dramatic series next summer could reenergise the sport in Australia.
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Hide Ad“I think there will be a huge interest,” Hastings said. “I think it's going to be a great, great tour and a great Test match series.”
To celebrate the launch of the 2025 British & Irish Lions jersey, Howden, a Principal Partner of the Lions, is touring the UK challenging the public to ‘Kick for Greatness’ to win a money-can’t-buy prize to the warm-up game against Argentina in Dublin, with exclusive squad training access.
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