How Tadhg Beirne responded to selection ‘pressure' with statement first Test performance
Beirne had been somewhat surprisingly installed on the blindside by head coach Andy Farrell for the opening clash of the series against the Wallabies having been short of his best since arriving on tour.
The 33-year-old Munster and Ireland forward upped his level, however, in Brisbane, combining with fellow flanker Tom Curry to set the tone physically as the Lions took a 1-0 lead in the series.
While Curry would not be drawn on the criticism his own selection ahead of Jac Morgan and Josh van der Flier had garnered, Farrell hailed both he and Beirne as 'big game players'.
And Beirne, who looks well placed to keep his place in Melbourne next week, admitted that he had been fuelled by a desire to prove the critics wrong and hit the heights he had been yet to reach in Australia.
'I felt the pressure,' Beirne conceded. 'I'm not going to lie, I did feel the pressure this week. There are some things you can't shy away from. A lot of people [were] calling for your head out there.
'I know my performances to this date weren't up to par by my standards. Faz [Farrell] has put a lot of trust in me and it was an honour to be selected. I had to put in a performance today. All of us did.
'This is the game. Big games. You want to perform. You either step up to it or you don't. I tried my best to step up to it and hopefully when [the coaches] review the game they will be happy with my performance.
'You have to back yourself, but I also knew that if I didn't put in a performance today that there was a good chance I won't be there next week. It's a credit to the whole team here because the whole team put in a great performance, particularly in the first half. We controlled the game really well.'
The fight for back row places had shaped as a theme of the tour from the moment Farrell named his party, with real strength in the area. The exclusion of Morgan, particularly, had attracted attention with the openside in fine form as the last Welshman in the touring party.
Beirne revealed that Farrell had underlined to he, Curry, No 8 Jack Conan and Ben Earl the need to be at their best given the internal competition for places.
'Look, Andy had a quiet word with the back row, the captains, and he said a few things to us,' the 33-year-old explained. 'He put a little bit of pressure on us without putting pressure on us, you know, as Andy does.
'But it gives you motivation and it gives you a little bit of realisation as to where his head's at and the opportunity that's being presented to us. Those words certainly sat with me for the 24 hours leading up to the game.
'That's the thing about the Lions. Any man next up has more than earned their spot. There's been incredible performances in the lead-up to these Tests. If I'd have gone down with an injury, [ Ollie Chessum ] would have went into six, no-one would have batted an eyelid there, not 'oh no, Tadhg's out', do you know what I mean? It would have been like 'great, Chess is in'.
'So that's the tour we're in. These guys everyone's gunning for a position here and everyone's worthy of a position here. The responsibility is on us to try and keep our positions.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Glasgow Times
an hour ago
- Glasgow Times
‘Selfless' Garry Ringrose praised after concussion withdrawal
Ringrose pulled out of a Lions team that shows three changes from the opening 27-19 victory over Australia, with Andrew Porter, Ollie Chessum and Bundee Aki given starts. On the bench Owen Farrell is poised to make his first international appearance since helping England finish third at the 2023 World Cup and he is joined by Jac Morgan, the only Welshman in the touring party. The starting XV is made up of nine players from Ireland – seven of whom represent Leinster – four Englishmen and two from Scotland. The Ireland and Leinster contingent would have increased by one had Ringrose not told head coach Andy Farrell shortly before he was due to officially announce the team that his concussion symptoms had returned. An injury that initially surfaced after July 9's win over the ACT Brumbies forced him to sit out the first Test but having made a successful comeback against the First Nations and Pasifika XV on Tuesday, he was poised to replace Huw Jones at outside centre. Instead, he will be watching from the stands with Jones continuing in midfield for the Lions' shot at completing a series victory at Melbourne Cricket Ground. 'Garry was actually selected and unfortunately after training he's had to pull out,' Andy Farrell said. 'It's head-related again. It was literally as I was walking off the field. He came to me and once that's mentioned, that's that. 'With these type of things players are getting very good at telling the truth of how they feel, so it was a no-brainer to make the change straight away. 'It's very easy to keep it to yourself and lie and not be honest and open. It was very big of him and the right thing to do, 100 per cent. For the team as well, not just for Garry.' Ready for Saturday night at the G! 🦁#Lions2025 — British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) July 24, 2025 Lions captain Maro Itoje echoed the view of his head coach. 'I'm gutted for him that he's in this position but it also shows the measure of the man to be so selfless,' Itoje said. 'All we ask of all of us is to be selfless and put the team first. When push comes to shove, you see who really does it. Garry is a man who really did it.' Had Ringrose been fit, he would have formed an all-Ireland partnership with Aki at the expense of Sione Tuipulotu and Jones, the Scotland combination who impressed in the series opener at Suncorp Stadium. Maro Itoje (left) and Andy Farrell hailed Garry Ringrose's selflessness (David Davies/PA) Tuipulotu is struggling with a tight hamstring but the indications are that he would have been dropped even without the injury. Joe McCarthy has failed to recover from his foot problem so Chessum slots into the second row, while loosehead prop Porter is preferred ahead of Ellis Genge in the front row. James Lowe is lucky to retain his place on the left wing after a poor display in the first Test, but with Blair Kinghorn present on the bench after overcoming a knee problem Andy Farrell has a high-quality alternative ready.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
England women's head coach John Mitchell vows his team will learn lessons of 2015 after taking Ben Youngs tips ahead of home World Cup
England women's head coach John Mitchell said a discussion with men's record caps holder Ben Youngs will help his team avoid the mistakes of the country's horror 2015 campaign. A decade ago, England's men's team – which included Youngs – bombed out of their home World Cup under the guidance of Stuart Lancaster, failing to qualify from their pool. This summer, Mitchell's Red Roses will play on English soil as firm favourites to win the women's competition having won 55 of their last 56 matches. The last time England women lost a match was their heartbreaking defeat by New Zealand in the World Cup final of 2022. 'I spoke to Ben and he was very insightful,' said Mitchell, who worked with Youngs while an assistant coach with England's men's side. 'He said that over his four World Cups, he enjoyed the ones where it didn't feel like a high performance jail. I think that little nugget was key.' In 2015, the pressure on England's men's side to become world champions on English soil was immense. Ultimately, the expectation proved too much, with discussion over the best position in which to play rugby league convert Sam Burgess dominating. Players involved in that campaign have spoken in the years since about how with such a desire to win, there was no enjoyment about the build-up. That tension resulted in poor on-field performances, England's men's side losing to Wales and Australia. Mitchell is determined there won't be a repeat this summer. 'It's exciting. You hear this word pressure all the time but it's just a word. If you frame it negatively it becomes about the risk of failure,' he said. 'I see it as an opportunity to be successful. That's where my head is at.' On Thursday, Mitchell confirmed his 32-player squad for the tournament – one made up of 18 forwards and 14 backs. There were no real surprises. ENGLAND WORLD CUP SQUAD Forwards (18): Zoe Aldcroft (capt), Lark Atkin-Davies, Sarah Bern, Hannah Botterman Abi Burton, May Campbell, Mackenzie Carson, Kelsey Clifford, Amy Cokayne. Maddie Feaunati, Rosie Galligan, Lilli Ives Campion, Sadia Kabeya, Alex Matthews, Maud Muir Marlie Packer, Morwenna Talling , Abbie Ward Backs (14): Holly Aitchison, Jess Breach, Abby Dow, Zoe Harrison,Tatyana Heard, Natasha Hunt, Megan Jones, Ellie Kildunne, Claudia Moloney-MacDonald, Lucy Packer, Helena Rowland, Emily Scarratt, Jade Shekells, Emma Sing Experienced centre Emily Scarratt has been selected for her fifth global showpiece – a record for an England player, either man or woman. Natasha Hunt and Lucy Packer are the only two out-and-out scrum-halves. Claudia Moloney-MacDonald, normally a wing, will be the other No 9 cover. Hunt was a shock omission for the 2022 tournament, which was delayed a year by the Covid-19 pandemic, but is now first-choice in her position. England will be captained by forward Zoe Aldcroft. 'It's been a two-and-a-half year process on selection,' said Mitchell. Thursday's squad announcement at Allianz Stadium saw more than 100 members of the media attend – a record for an England rugby press conference. It was a reflection of the incredible growth the female game has enjoyed in the last three years. England's women are taking inspiration from the Lionesses who will play Spain in the final of EURO 2025 on Sunday. A huge summer of women's sport in England awaits.
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
Jac Morgan on Lions bench proves form does at least count for something
Thank the Lord for Jac Morgan's selection. Or thank Lord Farrell, at least. Morgan's selection can give you faith. Legions of British & Irish Lions fans will be relieved and delighted that Morgan has been promoted to the bench for the second Test against Australia in Melbourne on Saturday. And, yes, a majority of them may be Welsh, but what is crucial here is to remember the position held by Andy Farrell, the head coach: that he won't allow his selection process to be swayed by national interests or any desire to keep all four nations represented. Rightly so, of course. Yet Morgan's selection for the second Test is important for reasons far more weighty than any kind of PR. It is only a bench spot, but it is representative of far more. It proves that it has still been possible to play your way into the team. This is essential to how the Lions operate. Indeed, if they do not operate this way, then the Lions do not work — and that was, worryingly, how the class of 2025 had been looking. Every Lions coach will set out on tour with a likely or possible Test team in his head. Farrell did that and there were surely lots of Irishmen in there. But that's OK if the other players in the squad can change his thinking by the quality of their performances. In the Lions' rich history, there are long chapters on this very subject. Tom Smith and Paul Wallace, the two first-choice props in 1997: they are a chapter in themselves because they were no one's idea of a pair of Test props when the squad left for South Africa, but because of the way they played in the matches in the weeks before the Tests, their quality won them their starting spots. Here in Australia, though, one has wondered: does form still count? Is it actually possible to do a Smith, a Wallace? That was why the selections of Tom Curry and Tadhg Beirne a week ago were deemed controversial — because they hadn't notably excelled in the pre-Test games and Morgan had. Of all the back-row forwards in the squad, in those pre-Test games, Morgan was arguably the best of the lot. And yet he didn't even make the bench. It thus became clear how much Farrell had always wanted to start Curry. After Morgan's omission, the appropriate questions then were: what more could he have done? And: is there actually a way in? You do not have to extrapolate much further to then be asking: what was the point of Morgan coming? Not just Morgan, but all those others who boarded the plane more than a month ago and were not in the forefront of Farrell's selection plans. Why were they here if they didn't actually have a chance of breaking in? And once you get to that, you are questioning the very fabric of the touring Lions. But Morgan is in now. He has replaced Ben Earl on the bench. His form demanded it and the demands have been met. There is a spectrum here between being a very flexible selector and one whose opinion is hard to shift. Call it the selector's flexibility scale. For this Lions tour, Farrell's position on the flexibility scale is close to one end, the hard-to-shift end, though Morgan's selection at least shows that it is not at the complete extreme. There are circumstances that come in to play here. The opposition in the pre-Test matches has been subpar. This has lowered the value of a good performance; it has meant you could have a blinder and still not really turn Farrell's head. Morgan was man of the match against the Queensland Reds and that didn't seem to do him much good in the selection conversation for the first Test. You could say that Farrell's position on the selector's flexibility scale was then vindicated because he wasn't swayed by Morgan's form and instead picked Curry on account of the vast body of work in his international career to date and his record for showing up strong for big games — and Curry repaid his faith. Curry was magnificent. For the second Test, what is particularly fascinating about Farrell's team selection is his midfield. Due to injury, he has ended up with Bundee Aki and Huw Jones but he had wanted to go with his Irish duo of Aki and Garry Ringrose. He said that Sione Tuipulotu was suffering from a tight hamstring. Nevertheless, it would appear that, had everyone been fit, he would have gone with the Irish pair, despite the quality of the Scots in the first Test. Yes, even though Jones and Tuipulotu had proved their worth, Farrell would not have been persuaded by their form. That makes his position on the flexibility scale even more extreme. You may wonder, then, what it would take to unseat James Lowe from his Test position on the left wing. Lowe has very much not been in form here in Australia and it would appear he has been fortunate that the rivals to his position in the Test team have been unfit. But what of Blair Kinghorn, returning from injury in the game against a First Nations & Pasifika XV on Tuesday night? What if he'd had a good game? (he didn't). Would his form have forced his way in? That we will probably never know. All we can be sure of is that if you do happen to play outstandingly well over a period of time, then, as Morgan has proved, it is actually possible to change Farrell's mind after all. Second Test, MelbourneSaturday, 11amTV Sky Sports
