Gerry Thornley: As Lions phoney war nears an end, Irish players push hard to dominate first Test line-up

Irish Times

2 days ago

If Andy Farrell and the
British & Irish Lions
squad were a tad concerned about another patchy
performance in beating the Brumbies 36-24
, they certainly weren't inclined to show it. Not long after the players' adapted version of Rockin' All Over The World had reverberated from the away dressing room in the Gio Stadium, the Lions head coach cut a relatively sanguine figure about the state of his team just 10 days' out from the first Test.
Tadhg Furlong of the Lions powers through a tackle against Brumbies in Canberra, Australia. Photograph:'It is good, we get a good blend of different stuff every single week that gets thrown at us,' said
Farrell
after their fourth win out of four on Australian soil, even if this shadow Test side ought really to have won more convincingly.
'It is good preparation for what is going to be a fantastic Test in 10 days' time. I thought our game control was pretty good which allowed us to keep the pressure on at the right end of the field, so that is a step forward.'
Watching on from behind a glass screen somewhere in the ground alongside Laurie Fisher, Farrell's counterpart
Joe Schmidt
was positively beaming when the camera picked him out, perhaps in response to something his assistant had said.
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For the fourth game running, the Australian opposition made the breakdown an issue for the Lions and despite scoring three nice tries and playing some eye-catching rugby, this has disrupted the flow of the tourists' game. At times, it seems as if not enough players are committing to the breakdown, but either way Schmidt's Wallabies will be even more inclined to flood that area after witnessing the Lions four matches to date.
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Farrell effectively admitted this is a concern for him.
'As far as the breakdown is concerned, we knew that was going to be the case,' he said. 'Historically Australia have always gone hard at the breakdown and if anyone analyses the way we have been playing, that is what you would do.
'The pressure at the breakdown is no surprise to us. Sometimes it is a mess, we have got to make sure we keep asking for clarity as far as that is concerned . . . but first things first, we need to look after our own ruck.'
Farrell perhaps took some comfort too, along with frustration, in the knowledge that the Lions really should have won more emphatically.
The Lions' Jack Conan is tackled by Liam Bowron of the Brumbies. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho
'Overall, bigger picture stuff, I thought we dominated the game. If you got the game and fast forwarded through it you would see that. On the back of that we scored some lovely balanced tries, but the other side of the story is we certainly left three out there and maybe more. That kept the Brumbies in the game and they were good enough to be able to capitalise on some of our errors and disciplined to score some points themselves. Plenty to do obviously.'
The possibility of an all-Irish front-row is not out of the question
Perhaps Farrell has also had enough of this phoney war. Asked if he thought these somewhat low-key warm-up games - and this was another relatively flat atmosphere - might be an ominous portent, Farrell maintained: 'No, not at all. You wait. You wait until everyone comes to terms and see what builds up in regards to the first Test etc . . . It's going to be fantastic.'
One ventures too that Farrell had a fairly good idea as to the composition of his team for that match, and even more so now. That said, there remain conundrums, not least fullback, a jersey which continues to have some bad luck attached to it.
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Blair Kinghorn went off in the 25th minute with a knee injury, but needless to say Farrell couldn't shed much light on the extent of this problem ahead of an early Thursday morning flight to Adelaide.
But the door must be ajar now for Hugo Keenan in the expectation that he starts on Saturday against the AUNZ Invitational XV in Adelaide.
It still looks like a close call between Tommy Freeman and Mack Hansen, who will have caught Farrell's eye with his cameo on his old stomping ground, covering across his wing to save a try and being centrally involved in the final attack.
On the premise that it's one national pairing or the other, the Bundee Aki-Garry Ringrose combination looks to be in pole position over the Scottish duo after this showing, and while Farrell would like to have seen Jamison Gibson-Park and Finn Russell play more than twice together, the third time will surely be on Saturday week.
The possibility of an all-Irish front-row is not out of the question given it still looks a close call between Andrew Porter and Ellis Genge, while Maro Itoje and Joe McCarthy also appear set to play together for just a third time in the first Test. That said, Ollie Chessum's strong performance and the option of Tadhg Beirne means that is not nailed on, although the latter is perhaps weary after a very heavy season.
Jack Conan led both the Lions' carrying and tackle counts with 17 and 14. He looks set to continue his hold on the Lions Test '8' jersey. But despite setting up one try, in the light of Tom Curry twice coughing up possession when forcing passes, Josh van der Flier still appears to be the better fit in Farrell's team at '7'.
Possible Lions Test team
: Keenan; Freeman, Ringrose, Aki, Lowe; Russell, Gibson-Park; Genge, Sheehan, Furlong; Itoje (capt), McCarthy; Chessum, Van der Flier, Conan. Replacements: Kelleher, Genge, Stuart, Beirne, Pollock, Mitchell, M Smith, Hansen.