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World Cup winner Kay backing Stuart for Lions role
The Rugby Paper
|June 15, 2025
THE door to possible legendary Lions status has opened wide in front of England’s Will Stuart and 2003 World Cup winner Ben Kay expects the in-form Bath man will charge powerfully through it when he gets Down Under.
Scotland prop Zander Fagerson’s summer tour dreams have been ended by a calf injury which has paved the way for En gland’s first choice tight head to take a front row Test seat.
Powerful young Sale prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 20, was brought in for training in Portugal ahead of the Argentina match on Friday, with Leinster and Ireland prop Finlay Bealham called up to the tour squad to fill the void left by Glasgow Warriors star Ferguson.
But it is Stuart who can benefit most as injuries have already begun to change the shape of Andy Farrell’s touring party before it takes off for the Southern Hemisphere.
Stuart, 28, finished a fine individual season in yesterday’s Premiership final at Twickenham and while he is such a valued member of the Bath pack the 50-cap prop is also becoming a firm fixture in Steve Borthwick’s En gland team.
This story is from the June 15, 2025 edition of The Rugby Paper.
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