The 5 Most Capped Players to Never Win A Cap For The Lions

Two little words were all it took for Hartley's Lions dreams to crumble to dust. The 11-week ban that the former England captain copped for telling referee Wayne Barnes to "f--- off" in Northampton's 2013 Premiership final loss to Leicester put the nail in his Lions coffin.

The former Ireland scrum-half was a perfect fit for the squeeze and control of Munster, with his game management to the fore, excelling in Irish teams where his role was to provide the fluid link between forwards and backs. Critics of Stringer always pointed at the lack of ball-in-hand threat, but Stringer had the last laugh as he scooted over for the crucial score in Munster's 2006 Heineken Cup final win.

Scotland's third-most capped player – famed for his orange gloves – was a physical presence out wide and, after some strong showings in the 2005 Six Nations, it came as a surprise that he was overlooked by Sir Clive Woodward for that year's tour, especially given the size of the travelling party to New Zealand. A dip in form in 2009 saw him lose his Scotland place and with that his Lions dreams were dashed.

The issue for Scotland's second-most capped player and the country's top points-scorer was that he did not offer the same ball-in-hand threat, nor defensive solidity, of some of his rivals. The former full-back was fleet of foot, with a dead eye off the tee, but there were always deemed to be more potent options among his Home Nations rivals.

The hooker toured with the British & Irish Lions side in 2013 and 2017, but never won a test cap. In April 2021, Best was announced as a technical and high-performance skills coach for the Seattle Seawolves alongside former Ireland international, Allen Clarke