Farrell throws down the gauntlet as opportunity beckons for chosen Lions

Head coach Andy Farrell, centre, speaks with Bundee Aki, left, Tadhg Beirne during the British & Irish Lions rugby squad training. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Andy Farrell has fired the starting gun on his players’ race to a British & Irish Lions Test jersey this summer after naming his first matchday squad for Friday night’s Dublin date against Argentina.

The 1888 Cup match on the eve of the Lions squad’s departure for a 10-match tour of Australia, highlighted by a three-Test series against the Wallabies, may be a non-cap international but the head coach is expecting a Test-level challenge from Los Pumas and that means an opportunity for the 23 players selected to pull on the famous red jersey first to make the earliest of impressions.