Latest news with #DanBiggar
Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- Times
Tadhg Beirne shows why he is Andy Farrell's prize poacher
S ky Sports are on to a winner with Dan Biggar and Ronan O'Gara. The two former fly halves have a natural rapport yet their easy banter never gets in the way of some searing insights. On one occasion yesterday, however, the TV execs must have been cursing Biggar for his honesty. As the Test match limped towards a conclusion, the Welshman admitted: 'It just feels a little bit flat, doesn't it? It doesn't feel like the end of a first Test at Suncorp at the beginning of a huge series.' It was left to others to scramble for reasons why the series might hold our attention for the next fortnight. Will Skelton and Rob Valetini may be ready for Melbourne. The Wallabies are wounded. They will be better next week. And so on.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Why debutant fly-half Tom Lynagh will be targeted, how Joseph Suaalii can be nullified… and the one stat the Lions must keep under control against Australia, writes DAN BIGGAR
The British and Irish Lions face Australia in Brisbane on Saturday in the opening match of a three-Test series. The tourists are unbeaten on Australian soil this summer following victories over Western Force, Queensland Reds, NSW Waratahs, Brumbies and an Invitational AU & NZ side. Andy Farrell's side will be looking to emulate the series win on the last Lions visit Down Under in 2013. Meanwhile, for the hosts, Tom Lynagh is the headline selection as he makes his first international start at fly-half, following in the footsteps of his father Michael, who faced the Lions in 1989. Here, former Wales captain Dan Biggar assesses where the game will be won and lost. HALF-BACKS Tom Lynagh is making his debut at No 10 for the Wallabies and it's a big ask to throw him in against the Lions. He'll be playing behind an underpowered pack and that could be dangerous. Lynagh will need his scrum-halves — Jake Gordon and Tate McDermott — to guide him through the game. In the Lions' warm-up matches, opponents have fallen into the trap of overplaying and allowing their line-speed to eat them up. That ends up with errors and turnovers. Ellis Genge and Tom Curry will be putting the kind of pressure on Lynagh that he hasn't felt before. He won't have much time. In that situation, your first instinct is to play a bit deeper but that's what the Lions want. He has to be brave. The Wallabies will kick a lot and that responsibility will fall on Gordon and McDermott. NULLIFY SUAALII Joseph Suaalii is a beast. He can beat you for speed, step you or offload. He's like Finn Russell in the way he wants the defence to come on to him because then he can use his skills. He's a superstar but the Lions will be looking at stopping the supply to him as much as stopping him. Give Suaalii 20 touches in the opposition half and he'll make you pay two or three times. You want to bring that down to 10 touches. Joe Schmidt will be smart in how he uses the outside centre as an 'in' to the game because nobody on the field comes close to his aerial ability. The Wallabies will need to use their kicking game to his advantage. BREAKDOWN The Wallabies have lost some size and power due to injuries so they need to turn the breakdown into a scrap. They have good jacklers in guys such as Fraser McReight, so they will attack the Lions on the floor. The Brumbies and Waratahs provided a good template by flying off the line and being aggressive. It was a blueprint of how to make the breakdown difficult. A lot of the Lions' problems at the breakdown have come from little half breaks. The Wallabies must take chances and have to contest every breakdown, because that's their best chance of winning. They have to make it difficult for Jamison Gibson-Park at the ruck because he has so many weapons outside him. HANDLING ERRORS Where the Lions have fallen short so far is with their handling errors and breakdown penalties. Handling errors give Australia an 'in'. The Wallabies want the game to be broken up, so they want transitions. Tom Wright and Max Jorgensen come alive in those situations. If the Lions keep the handling errors and penalties below 10, I don't see them having too many problems. They've been forcing passes a bit and it's easy to get caught up in that when you're dominating. They've been playing close to the gain-line, which is high risk, so they can afford to step off a little bit and keep it tight. REPLACEMENTS With Garry Ringrose ruled out, Andy Farrell has gone for the Scottish centre partnership of Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones. Those two have played so much with Russell. Jones is a real link centre and Russell knows what lines he will run. Bundee Aki will bring energy in the second half. If you look at the two benches, the Lions could easily rotate their replacements and starters without losing too much. Ollie Chessum and Ben Earl could easily be in the XV. You can't say the same about the Wallabies.
Irish Times
12-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Ronan O'Gara: ‘I think this tour is about the Lions being the best version of themselves'
When Ronan O'Gara landed in Brisbane on Wednesday of last week after his economy class, long-haul trek from La Rochelle, he was caught by surprise. He'd presumed that, as usual, he would be doing prematch, half-time and post-match punditry on Sky Sports' coverage of the Reds- Lions match. But, instead, he was to be co-commentator alongside Miles Harrison and Dan Biggar. In his various stints as a TV pundit, he'd never been a co-commentator before and he was also jet-lagged and whacked. But, 'infused with coffee', he actually found co-commentary 'way better', 'more challenging' and that 'it comes out naturally'. And besides, the more of ROG, the better. Former outhalves generally see the game and impart more information about a match than most other retired players, and certainly the O'Gara-Biggar double act has raised the bar. O'Gara describes Biggar as 'extremely impressive for a guy who's just retired. No grieving period. A lot of players, I think, struggle retiring. They're so well treated in Ireland. And then it's an awful bang. It's a massive fall off a cliff, although it's different from my time. A lot of guys nowadays are prepared for what's coming next. READ MORE 'But the player has to accept that he's not a star asset any more. He's retired. They won't be falling over you. That's what happens when you retire. Be very grateful for what you have but your time is over. There's a business to the sport as well. The show must go on. It's on to the next kid now.' O'Gara, who travelled back to La Rochelle on Thursday, revealed an ulterior motive for his eight-day trek through Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide for the Lions' matches against the Reds, the Waratahs and the Brumbies. 'It's built around getting to see coaches when I'm here,' he says. His passion for the game and coaching La Rochelle remains undimmed. He's just had his most trying season as a coach, when a winless nine-game run was arrested by five victories in a row only for a last-day loss in Pau to deny them a play-off place by one point. But it's made him even hungrier for next season's rebuild and twin assault on a first Bouclier de Brennus and third Champions Cup under his watch. Their preseason begins on Monday and although players will make a scattered return, critically his key men will have a proper preseason. Dan Biggar and Ronan O'Gara providing punditry at the Queensland Reds vs British & Irish Lions match at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane on July 2nd. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho He spent time with the Canberra Raiders Rugby League team on Monday, with the Brumbies on Tuesday and on Wednesday caught up with Stephen Larkham. Munster will 'always be home' and O'Gara was fascinated to hear Larkham's thoughts on his three years there. Larkham revealed that, due to the northern hemisphere winter, his time at Munster taught him more about game management, and the pair discussed at length whether to play with the wind in the first or second period. 'The French love taking the wind and imposing, while I'd always be of the mentality that it takes maybe 20 minutes to find the rhythm and so play into the wind and have it at your back coming home, because of the way I could manage a game. But he thinks about that long and hard. It was just good to chat because he's someone that I obviously played against and himself and [George] Gregan were special. Yeah, very special.' O'Gara's sense of anticipation about the forthcoming series is heightened by his huge admiration of Andy Farrell and Joe Schmidt, although he doesn't seem to envy the former's challenge in building a team from scratch. 'There was a gulf in class last night,' he says of the Lions' 36-24 win over the Brumbies on Wednesday. 'But that wasn't evident on the scoreboard, and it's something that the Lions have to get better at. You look at the raw ingredients and there's massive talent in one team. But it's tough, I would think, coaching that team.' 'It's still a big show, the Lions,' he says, 'but I think they just have to be careful that it just doesn't become elite. The cost is very expensive. Rugby needs an audience. It shouldn't just be if you have a big salary.' This is a particularly telling point as the availability of tickets for all three Tests, returned from Britain & Ireland and too expensive for Australians to snap up, suggests that the series has been overhyped by the Lions' machine and that supporters of both teams have been turned off by overpriced ticketing, hotels and travel. [ Tadhg Beirne to lead the Lions in final warm-up game before Test series Opens in new window ] O'Gara notes there was more 'Li-ons' chanting at warm-up games on the three tours he undertook as a player to Australia in 2001, New Zealand in 2005 and South Africa in 2009. 'I hear it's very expensive to travel over and even getting tickets over here.' O'Gara's fourth game on the '01 tour was the win over the Brumbies when he declined to assume the placekicking duties from Matt Dawson. The latter publicly expressed his gratitude after landing his redemptory match-winning conversion days after incurring the wrath of Graham Henry and Donal Lenihan for his public critique of the tour in a newspaper diary. O'Gara wanted Dawson to retain the placekicking because, as one himself, he'd hate to have had it taken away from him. 'There's nothing worse in life than handing the kicking tee to someone. You may as well take away your genitals as a man. That's your DNA. That's why there's kickers and there's pressure kickers. I think I can happily say I fall into the pressure kickers category, not at that stage but over my career. And that's a very select group because pressure hits rarely. And at the start of my career, I wasn't able for it. But at the end of my career, I nearly needed it,' he says, adding how he tried to pass on his experience to Richie Mo'unga, not without disagreements between the two, while assistant coach at the Crusaders. Waratahs' Duncan McRae and Ronan O'Gara of the British Lions clash during the tour match in Sydney in June 2001. Photograph: Adam Pretty/Allsport/Getty Images Alas, O'Gara's '01 tour will always be remembered for that vicious flurry of punches by Duncan McRae in the Waratahs match. 'I have no problem talking about any of that. It's weird because the kids saw it at home – now you can get everything on YouTube – and they were like: 'Dad, why didn't you hit him back?'' he recalls, laughing. 'I said, I don't know, I ask myself the same question.' He adds: 'There's loads of moments that you'd like to change, but they shape you.' O'Gara will always have regrets about conceding the penalty which Morné Steyn landed in the second Test to seal the 2009 series. 'But one thing which, with hindsight, I'm proud of is that it never came into my head to kick the ball out for a drawn series. I would just never be like that as a player or as a coach. You go for it. And I've been lucky and I got a massive return with that in coaching and playing. 'To kick it out? No. But to contest it in the air you need to be smarter. It was a stupid decision to play a guy in the air. And you wish you could change that. I kicked it well, because even I could get under it,' he notes, ironically. 'But that's what happens in live sport and the big regret is that it was Paulie's team and Paulie's a great mate, and it meant so much. You hate letting down guys that you like and respect.' O'Gara describes the New Zealand of 2005 as the best All Blacks side ever, 'and the best performance by a 10 was in Wellington', he adds in reference to Dan Carter's virtuoso 33-point haul in the second Test. 'He redefined outhalf play, even to this day; kicking, running, a tactical masterclass.' Dan Carter helping the All Blacks to a 3-0 series victory against the Lions in 2005. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho By the time of his third Lions tour O'Gara had won the Heineken Cup in '06 and '08, and the Grand Slam in '09, but was aware that Stephen Jones was Warren Gatland's Welsh outhalf. 'I get it as a coach now. He gave the keys of the 'camion', as they say in France, because he had more familiarity as a coach with his 10.' As for the Lions of 2025, O'Gara says: 'They haven't hit their straps or close to it yet. All the pieces of the jigsaw aren't fitting together and that takes time. They're very good players but the difficult task is putting them together.' He cites the concession of the Brumbies' last try when the Lions were outnumbered on the blindside of a scrum as an example. And another when Tadhg Furlong sprinted off the line off turnover ball, because that's how he's coached by Jacques Nienaber, but team-mates 'jockeyed', or stayed connected. 'He's expecting his team-mates in blue to do the exact same, and you leave the outside, which is admirable. But when half do one thing and half do the other, that's when problems come. And that's exactly what's happening with players from different countries because they're not robots. To detrain takes 21 days, minimum, to get back to neutral.' [ Lions fail to land statement win against Brumbies but positives outweigh negatives Opens in new window ] It's the same with the ball when trying to 'stay in the flow' or 'stay in motion', he adds. 'It's putting aside everyone's egos to put the team first.' But he's in no doubt that this team has the potential to click. Furthermore, Noah Lolesio is a 'massive' loss to the Wallabies as he was Schmidt's 'go-to man' at outhalf, while O'Gara believes that Finn Russell has progressed his game. 'He's added a game management side to his game; it's not just all play, play, play. He's rewarding his forwards, giving them five-metre lineouts. That's big.' He's also genuinely in awe of Jamison Gibson-Park's all-round game, tempo and decision-making. Still, O'Gara says a Wallabies team strengthened by his own Will Skelton, Rob Valetini and Jake Gordon has to be respected, and also one coached by Schmidt. Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt before the international Test match between Australia and Fiji in Newcastle, Australia on July 6th. Photograph:'I think he's on his own in his capacity to pick holes in the opposition. That's a fantastic skill. I haven't got to that stage of my career yet. If you're playing 35 games a year with 40 players, I need to get 'us' right, but in the Test game, you have to do that.' Cue O'Gara's own Lions team choice for the first Test. 'I'd finish with Porter, Sheehan and Furlong, with Genge, Kelleher and Stuart to start. Itoje will start with McCarthy, and I'd go Beirne, Conan and Van der Flier, then Gibson-Park, Russell, Aki-Ringrose, Lowe, Freeman and Keenan.' But for Blair Kinghorn's injury, O'Gara would have considered a 7-1 bench split, given the Toulouse player can cover outhalf. 'I would still have a massive impact bench. I would go 6-2. As well as Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, I'd have James Ryan, Pollock and Earl, and then Mitchell and Owen Farrell. Tactically I'm very happy with the backs. The only change would be for an injury. But Pollock against a tiring defence and Earl, after Conan has done the donkey work, could do real damage.' Building a lineout, O'Gara believes, requires Beirne while 'McCarthy will hop off Will [Skelton], which will be interesting. Ollie Chessum is in form but you can only pick 23 and Beirne's capacity to pick his moment is a point of difference. But people don't appreciate that this is very, very difficult for Andy Farrell.' Yet, in conclusion, O'Gara still maintains: 'There's no doubt the Lions should win. It's not Australia from 20 years ago. They're eighth in the world. I think it would be very different touring South Africa or New Zealand, and you have to say that. 'But there's huge excitement in anticipation of this series and I think this tour is about the Lions being the best version of themselves. That's what people at home want to see.'
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Dan Biggar questions Owen Farrell's Lions call-up: ‘It doesn't really make sense'
Dan Biggar has questioned the logic behind Owen Farrell's surprise call-up to the British and Irish Lions squad, with the former Wales fly half claiming the decision 'doesn't really make sense'. Farrell has been summoned to join the touring party in Australia after Saracens teammate Elliot Daly fractured his forearm against the Queensland Reds. Advertisement It is a bold call made by head coach Andy Farrell to call up his son to replace the versatile Daly, with the pair not like-for-like positionally. The Lions boss has hinted that Farrell's capacity to cover 12 is valuable to a squad short on inside centre options, though there appears to be ample cover at fly half with all of Finn Russell, Fin Smith and Marcus Smith already among the 37 players Down Under. While the 33-year-old's competitive spirit and experience are undoubted, Farrell has not played for nine weeks and endured a difficult season at Racing 92 in the Top 14, with a number of injuries disrupting his campaign. He has not played at Test level since putting his England career on hold following the 2023 Rugby World Cup to prioritise his mental wellbeing. Biggar toured with the Englishman on the 2017 and 2021 Lions trips and admits he was taken aback by the news. 'I have to say it seems like there's a lot of risk in this play and not a huge amount of reward," Biggar, who is working as a Sky Sports pundit in Australia during the tour, said. Advertisement "You've got Marcus and Fin Smith. Where do they feel like they sit in the pecking order now? When they close the bedroom door and go to bed and turn the lights off at night, what are they thinking? "Are they thinking he is coming in to replace them? There's lots of options in those positions and it just feels like it doesn't really make sense and I think everybody is saying the same thing. 'I'm struggling to get to grips with the sense of it. No one's doubting that Owen is an amazing character, an amazing player in the career he's had. But he hasn't played Test rugby for over two years, hasn't played any form of rugby for the last couple of months and the person he's replacing [Daly], he doesn't play any of the same positions.' Fin Smith will start for the Lions at fly half against the Waratahs on Saturday as the Lions continue their preparations for the three-Test series against the Wallabies. Farrell's call-up means that he is set to feature on a fourth tour, with the playmaker expected to be available to feature against the Brumbies in Canberra on Wednesday if selected.
The Irish Sun
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
‘Felt like 14 days' – Ronan O'Gara shares ‘brutal' if hilarious tale from his flight to Australia for Lions game
RONAN O'Gara's 14-hour flight to Australia "felt like 14 days" on account of being sat between two random women instead of his kids. The Advertisement 3 He was speaking from Sydney as he's following Andy Farrell's side round for a few days Credit: AFP 3 The flight was made even longer as he admitted he's not one for watching movies in any setting Credit: Alamy 3 The Lions are next in action on Saturday when they take on Waratahs at 11am Irish time Credit: Getty He brought his children along with him so that they could sample a Lions tour since they only come around once every four years. However, the first leg of the sweet family getaway was ruined by him being separated from his children for the entire long-haul flight. Appearing on "But since I went with the kids we were in economy. They weren't in the same row as me which was ridiculous. Advertisement Read More On Irish Sport "I was put in row E between two ladies that I'd never met obviously. So that 14 hours was tough! It felt like 14 days! "Even the kids were like 'Dad, you're going to have change that (for the flight back). "They were telling me that Dan Biggar was in first-class! It was brutal though. I completely underestimated how much that flight would take it out of me." The arduous journey was worth it though as fans on both sides of the Irish Sea loved his input while on co-comms for Advertisement Most read in Rugby Union The 48-year-old even The La Rochelle head coach has spoken before about the Andy Farrell wants end to social media 'nonsense' after son Owen's Lions call And his latest language faux pas unfortunately came in front of a far bigger audience. Advertisement He tweeted: "ROG accidentally speaking French on comms the highlight of the second-half!" Similarly, Gavan Casey of the 42 added: "Ronan O'Gara is going to add so much to this Lions tour as a co-commentator. "A lovely blend of coaching insight, self-deprecation, Tony Romo-esque premonitions, and accidental French. Dan Biggar top-class also, as always." Overall he did très bien as there was a lot of praise for his insightful analysis as the match unfolded. Advertisement Carl hailed: "Dan Biggar and Ronan O'Gara on co-comms is the perfect blend of experience and knowledge. A pleasure to listen to them." Lastly, Jim praised: "Really liking Ronan O'Gara on commentary so far."
