The 2009 British and Irish Lions Tour is scheduled to take place from May to July 2009, with seven provincial games being played alongside the three-match Test series. It has been confirmed that the Test matches will be played in Durban, Pretoria and Johannesburg.

Itinerary

Match	Date	Opponent	Location	Referee
1	30 May	Highveld XV	Rustenburg	Marius Jonker
2	3 June	Golden Lions	Johannesburg	Craig Joubert
3	6 June	Free State Cheetahs	Bloemfontein	Wayne Barnes
4	10 June	Natal Sharks	Durban	Jonathan Kaplan
5	13 June	Western Province	Cape Town	Mark Lawrence
6	16 June	Southern Kings	Port Elizabeth	Nigel Owens
1st Test	20 June	First Test	Durban	Bryce Lawrence
7	23 June	Emerging Springboks	Cape Town	Alain Rolland
2nd Test	27 June	Second Test	Pretoria	Christophe Berdos
3rd Test	4 July	Third Test	Johannesburg	Stuart Dickinson

2009 British and Irish Lions Squad

Player	Position	Home Union	Club
Jerry Flannery	Hooker	Ireland	Munster
Lee Mears	Hooker	England	Bath
Matthew Rees	Hooker	Wales	Scarlets
Gethin Jenkins	Prop	Wales	Cardiff Blues
Adam Jones	Prop	Wales	Ospreys
Euan Murray	Prop	Scotland	Northampton Saints
Andrew Sheridan	Prop	England	Sale Sharks
Phil Vickery	Prop	England	London Wasps
Nathan Hines	Lock	Scotland	Perpignan
Alun Wyn Jones	Lock	Wales	Ospreys
Donncha O’Callaghan	Lock	Ireland	Munster
Paul O’Connell (C)	Lock	Ireland	Munster
Simon Shaw	Lock	England	London Wasps
Stephen Ferris	Flanker	Ireland	Ulster
Alan Quinlan	Flanker	Ireland	Munster
David Wallace	Flanker	Ireland	Munster
Martyn Williams	Flanker	Wales	Cardiff Blues
Joe Worsley	Flanker	England	London Wasps
Jamie Heaslip	Number eight	Ireland	Leinster
Andy Powell	Number eight	Wales	Cardiff Blues
Harry Ellis	Scrum-half	England	Leicester Tigers
Mike Phillips	Scrum-half	Wales	Ospreys
Stephen Jones	Fly-half	Wales	Scarlets
Ronan O’Gara	Fly-half	Ireland	Munster
Keith Earls	Centre	Ireland	Munster
Riki Flutey	Centre	England	London Wasps
Brian O’Driscoll	Centre	Ireland	Leinster
Jamie Roberts	Centre	Wales	Cardiff Blues
Tommy Bowe	Wing	Ireland	Ospreys
Luke Fitzgerald	Wing	Ireland	Leinster
Leigh Halfpenny	Wing	Wales	Cardiff Blues
Ugo Monye	Wing	England	Harlequins
Shane Williams	Wing	Wales	Ospreys
Lee Byrne	Fullback	Wales	Ospreys
Rob Kearney	Fullback	Ireland	Leinster

The Lions squad is dominated by Irish players, more so than ever before with 4 players from the Champion Leinster club. The Lions Tour 2009 will be a chance for revenge for the World Champion South African team who lost to the Lions in their last visit. The tour will be an interesting one for sure. I will be watching, will you?