'A professional team performance': Andy Farrell pleased with Lions' Test prep

Irish Examiner

15 hours ago

Andy Farrell praised a "professional team performance" as his British & Irish Lions swept aside an AUNZ Invitational XV in their final tour game before next Saturday's first Test against Australia.
The Lions did not get the stiff challenge head coach Farrell may have hoped for from what looked a strong combined squad of Aussies and Kiwis with 17 capped internationals in its matchday 23, including eight All Blacks.
Yet that examination did not materialise as a scratch side was caught napping as early as the third minute as Duhan van der Merwe ran in a simple first try of three for the right wing and eight for the team.
The Lions won comprehensively, 48-0, yet Farrell was satisfied his team had done all that was asked of them and could turn to face the Wallabies with confidence.
'I am very pleased to finish off what has been a tough enough block for all sorts of reasons to get to this point now where we face the Test series," the Lions boss said.
"I am really proud of everyone, not just the players but the staff etc for getting us all to this point so it is nice to get a good performance, then roll into a Test series in a nice shape as a squad in regards to where our game is at and our mentality and how much we have got to improve."
There were some standout performances from his team, not least Irish back three duo Hugo Keenan at full back and right wing Mack Hansen, while the head coach's son Owen Farrell came off the bench on 50 minutes, slotted in at inside centre and was immaculate in his passing and decision making.
Farrell senior declined the invitation to praise his 32-year-old son's performance but said: "He did okay, as did many others tonight.
"There were some great individual performances but I suppose how those individuals gel together as a collective. I thought it was a professional team performance because they are tricky ones.
"You are damned if you do, damned if you don't if you play against a side with all the talent they have but they have had seven or eight days to come together.
"If you give them a sniff and give them belief it becomes a hard day at the office but we were very professional in way we went about our business."
Farrell and his touring party will move on to Brisbane on Sunday afternoon to begin preparing in earnest for the opening rubber of a three-Test set against Joe Schmidt's Wallabies and he is relishing the opportunity of a full week's training, something of a luxury after the first half of the tour schedule had featured three games every eight days, each of them a plane journey away from the previous fixture.
'We have got a normal week as we have all been craving... we travel tomorrow, and we train Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and we'll get to a performance day on Wednesday and everyone will know where they are at.
"I just said to the players, selection is going to be unbelievably difficult and that is how it should be but I know we have got a group that is as cohesive as it gets and they will all row in together no matter what because it takes a squad to win a series."