\n<\/p>\n
Eight of the Lions’ 38-man squad in Australia were born, raised and spent their whole education in the southern hemisphere before moving north.<\/p>\n
They have taken two different routes to become eligible for England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and therefore the British and Irish Lions.<\/p>\n
Aki, his Ireland team-mates James Lowe and Jamison Gibson-Park, and Scotland duo Duhan van der Merwe and Pierre Schoeman all qualify for their adoptive countries on residence grounds.<\/p>\n
When that quintet were going through the process, three years living in a country was enough to be able to represent it.<\/p>\n
Lowe played for the Maori All Blacks against the British and Irish Lions in 2017, before switching to Irish province Leinster later that year, aged 25.<\/p>\n
Gibson-Park, who played for the Maoris against Leicester Tigers earlier in his career, had made the same switch the year before at the age of 24.<\/p>\n
Both made their Ireland debuts shortly after passing three years in Dublin.<\/p>\n
Aki has previously admitted that qualifying for Ireland and stepping up to the Test game was a big part of the motivation behind his own move to Connacht from New Zealand in 2014.<\/p>\n
Van der Merwe and Schoeman both played for South Africa’s under-20 team before signing for Edinburgh and, after serving their time there, qualifying for Scotland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n