Farrell keeps cards close as Lions face into business end

Irish Examiner

15 hours ago

Now comes the waiting for the British & Irish Lions Test hopefuls eager to learn their selection fate for this Saturday's first Test against Australia.
Six matches into their 2025 Lions experience, they can do no more as Andy Farrell and his assistant coaches thrash out the names of the 23 players who will represent the famous touring side at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium.
The first selection meeting took place on arrival in the Queensland capital on Sunday afternoon as the Lions flew in from Adelaide in South Australia following Saturday's 48-0 romp past an AUSNZ Invitational XV that failed to live up to the credentials the names on the teamsheet suggested.
Those six matches, all of them victories, have failed to resolve, for those outside the camp at least, selection issues across a variety of positions. Some of them, at loosehead prop for instance, appear to be flip-of-the-coin decisions. Others are a question of rugby strategy; do the Lions go with an extra lineout jumper at blindside flanker or a more mobile, lighter player for the position while the centre partnership issue has been complicated by both the concussion sustained by Garry Ringrose and the impact made as a replacement inside centre in Saturday's game, Owen Farrell.
Farrell senior has kept his counsel on all selection matters throughout this tour but suggested he still had an open mind as to who dons the Test 12 and 13 jerseys in Brisbane this Saturday. Bundee Aki and Ringrose had impressed against the Brumbies in Canberra last Wednesday and seemed destined to start the first Test. Three days later and with Ringrose struck from the options menu due to a head knock, Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones put themselves in pole position as a pairing at the Adelaide Oval.
But the wait goes on. Tadhg Beirne had captained the side which dispatched the Les Kiss-coached squad and was one of several players to have bolstered his prospects of inclusion in the first Test side to be named by Farrell on Thursday.
"It would be great if you just announced it in the morning," Beirne beseeched Farrell as matchday captain and coach sat beside one another during the post-match media conference at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday.
"But this is all part of it isn't it, you just have to get on with it, we'll enjoy each other's company tonight, we'll enjoy the travel and we're still here to enjoy each other's company and enjoy the whole process of it.
"There's no point in dwelling on it too much because it's out of our control now, it's up to the coach and staff and they'll pick the best 23 they feel is going to put in the performance we need to."
Beirne would not be the first Irishman to place his trust in Farrell to come up with the right decision but that does not make waiting for it any more comfortable.
"It's a little bit out of our control at this point, everyone's put their best foot forward and it's up to Andy and the coaching staff now to select what they believe is the best 23 to do a job," Beirne added.
"Everyone's going to be anxious and want to be in that 23 but if you're not it's about how you react to that then, it's about preparing those 23 because we're all here to put one goal in mind.
"If you're not in that 23 it's just as important to prepare the team as best you can so they're ready to go come the Test game."
Beirne picked out a team-mate from his first Lions tour four years ago in South Africa who optimised that team-first mentality when omitted from the Test 23 to face the Springboks and plumped for England hooker Jamie George.
An hour or so later it was George who was called up from his country's tour of Argentina on Saturday night as cover for the injured Luke Cowan-Dickie.
George, a veteran of the 2017 and 2021 tours, could be one of the players who provides the glue for the rest of this tour as a Test squad takes shape and those outside it in this now 41-man squad are relied on to prepare the squad as Beirne described.
For Farrell's considerations extend beyond Test one to the games two and three of this series as well as a final midweek game of the tour, on Tuesday week against a First Nation/Pasifika team in Melbourne.
Thomas Clarkson's call-up on Sunday from Ireland's tour following the blowout 106-7 record test victory over Portugal in Lisbon the night before was with that game in mind rather than the Test series with the Wallabies, one suspects.
He and another recent call-up from the Leinster and Ireland ranks, versatile back Jamie Osborne, are likely to get their first tastes of Lions rugby in that Tuesday fixture at Marvel Stadium and the head coach made it clear that this was no throwaway game but an important bridge between Tests one and two.
Yet another player from Leinster, a third-choice tighthead prop for his province at that, immediately brought cries of 'Thomas who?' from those unfamiliar of the 25-year-old's contribution to the cause for province and country alike these past few months, but to the uninitiated it just looked like another example of this tour become an Ireland development tour. For Farrell, though, it is all part of the plan to protect his frontline props between the Tests and not risk further injuries by throwing them into a midweek fixture at such a critical juncture of the tour.
The British and Leinster Lions jibe may have been doing the rounds as the Welsh Rugby Union crest was removed from the Lions crest in an internet meme and replaced by the blue harp of the Irish province, but Farrell will not care.
'It's irrelevant what goes on outside for us,' he said on Saturday night following the AUSNZ victory. 'It matters how we approach, perform and go forward as a group. This group today has done the whole squad a service in how we push forward.
'The lads who get picked in the first Test, they'll be the lucky ones to represent the group, but they've also got to earn the right to keep that jersey for the second Test as well so there's pressure there.
'The performance against the First Nations on the Tuesday, that's a showing for everyone else to make sure that they're showing the rest of their team-mates that they're up for the challenge as far as the series are concerned and that keeps everyone hungry for games two and three because obviously the same in game two happens again in regards to the first Test.