British and Irish Lions squad 2017: Player-by-player profile of Warren Gatland's party for tour of New Zealand

There are only two Scots in the squad, but 12 Welshmen, 16 Englishmen and 11 Irish

Warren Gatland named his 41-man British and Irish Lions squad for the tour of New Zealand on Thursday afternoon with a number of notable surprises.

The first was the inclusion of England centre Jonathan Joseph after numerous reports earlier in the week that the Bath speedster was set to miss out on the squad in favour of Wales centre Jamie Roberts.

Roberts, who lost his Wales place prior to the Six Nations, didn’t make the plane in the end, but Ireland’s Jared Payne did – much to the surprise of many.

There was no place for England captain Dylan Hartley, Joe Launchbury, Mike Brown, James Haskell or Chris Robshaw but Dan Biggar is included over George Ford.

Wales number eight Ross Moriarty made the squad too in another of the big surprises.

What wasn’t a surprise was the return Sam Warburton as captain as he became only the second man to skipper the side on two occasions.

In all, Gatland only picked two Scots, despite them finishing third in this year’s Six Nations, but 12 Welshmen, even though they finished fifth.

Scroll through the gallery at the top of the page as The Independent profiles each of the 41 players going on the six week tour of New Zealand in June and July.