The television show Outlander, writer and artist Kahlil Gibran and Perth’s mining heritage do not often all get mentioned in the same media conference.
But Scotland prop Pierre Schoeman is not a standard interviewee.
The South Africa-born forward appears to be one of the more philosophical members of the British and Irish Lions squad that is touring Australia this summer.
And the 31-year-old, one of eight players born outside the British Isles and Ireland in Andy Farrell’s party, has dismissed question marks over their right to be in the squad.
“If you’re good enough to play for your country and then you’re good enough to play for the Lions and you’re selected, obviously you’re going to do that,” said Schoeman, who has 42 Scotland caps after qualifying through residency.
“Scotland is home for us, my wife and myself and other players as well. You embrace that, you fully take that on.
“It’s like Outlander. You move to a different country and now that’s your house. You live there. You buy into the culture and now to represent the British and Irish Lions, you fully buy into that, you fully submerge into that.
“Nothing else matters, not your past, not the future, it’s about the now.
“Kahlil Gibran says it in one of his books quite well and that is, ‘yesterday’s gone forever, tomorrow might never come, now is the time to live’.
“That’s what you do as Lions. It’s about the now – this tour, that’s what really matters.”
