Andy Farrell: 'This is the most important game of the tour'
British and Irish Lions' head coach Andy Farrell. Pic: David Davies/PA Wire.
Andy Farrell has told his British & Irish Lions players that Saturday’s match is not a last-chance saloon scenario but the most important game of the tour so far.
The head coach named his team on Thursday to face an AUSNZ Invitational XV at the Adelaide Bowl on Saturday, a last run out before the opening game in a three-Test series with Australia seven days later.
Tadhg Beirne captains the side from the second row, having started at blindside flanker in his last appearance against the Waratahs last Saturday, named alongside fellow Ireland lock James Ryan.
Neither featured in Wednesday’s clash with the Brumbies in Canberra, when Farrell selected his strongest line-up of the tour to date in what was seen as a dry run for the first Test in Brisbane.
Yet Farrell does not see his line-up for Saturday as a last chance for his players to stake their claims for Test selection and insists that he views it as an ongoing audition for the series as a whole against the Wallabies as well as a cherished opportunity to pull on the famous red jersey.
“This is a three-game series that takes a whole squad to compete and keep competing throughout up until the final whistle of the third Test,” Farrell said at the Lions new training base at the private boarding school for boys St Peter’s College in northern Adelaide.
“So these guys who get to take the field on Saturday, we've literally just come out of a meeting and the message is that this is the most important game of the tour. It has to be.
"Not just because it's a week out from the Test match but because it's the next one. Whenever you put a Lions jersey on, that's the respect you have to live up to."
Ireland’s Hugo Keenan gets the start to face the combined Australia/New Zealand side on Saturday as Farrell revealed Blair Kinghorn was having a scan of the left knee he injured in the 36-24 win over the Brumbies.
Kinghorn received positive news following the aforementioned scan, and the Lions medical team will manage his return to training over the coming days. Ireland’s Jamie Osborne - currently with the Ireland squad in Portugal - will join the squad to provide additional training cover.
The Leinster man has been named in a back three with Connacht’s Mack Hansen on the right wing and Scotland’s Duhan van der Merwe on the left, outside an all-Scottish centre partnership of Sione Tuitupulotu and Huw Jones.
Fin Smith returns at fly-half with scrum-half Ben White, the fourth Scot in the Lions backline, handed the number nine jersey.
There is a front row of Pierre Schoeman, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Will Stuart while the back row comprises Henry Pollock at blindside flanker, Jac Morgan at openside and Ben Earl at No.8.
The bench sees late arrival Owen Farrell given his first opportunity of the tour by his head coach and father, as the outside back replacement with Marcus Smith nominally acting as fly-half cover and scrum-half Alex Mitchell maintaining his ever-present record in Australia.
There is an all-Irish front row in reserve with Ronan Kelleher, Andrew Porter and Finlay Bealham named, while Scott Cummings covers the locks and Josh van der Flier is asked to cover the back row once again.
AUSNZ head coach Les Kiss named a strong invitational side featuring eight All Blacks and also including Bordeaux-Begles Champions Cup-winning back row Pete Samu on his return to Australia from France.
Farrell is wary of his opponents’ strength and the depth of coaching knowledge on Kiss’s staff, with former New Zealand head coach Ian Foster assisting.
"Well, we know the coaches and we know the players individually and collectively from the Reds, Waratahs, or New Zealand. A lot of the lads have played against them before but as a unit, how they gel together, there's obviously a little bit of unknown there. But the reality is that when you look at the side, it looks like a formidable side that's going to be hard to stop."
“Knowing Les and Ian Foster and how they prepare the team, they'll be very thorough and I'm sure they'll be preparing them to play some good rugby and, at the same time, winning rugby. The side they've picked is very strong and able to do that."
S Stevenson; AJ Lam, N Laumape, D Havili (co-captain), M Koroibete; T Edmed, F Fakatava; A Ross, B Paenga-Amosa, J Toomaga-Allen; A Blyth, L Salakaia-Loto (co-captain); S Frizell, P Samu, H Sotutu.
K Eklund, J Fusitu’a, G Dyer, M Philip, J Brial, K Thomas, H McLaughlin-Phillips, J Campbell.
H Keenan; M Hansen, H Jones, S Tuipulotu, D van der Merwe; F Smith, B White; P Schoeman, L Cowan-Dickie, W Stuart; T Beirne – captain, J Ryan; H Pollock, J Morgan, B Earl.
R Kelleher, A Porter, F Bealham, S Cummings, J van der Flier, A Mitchell, M Smith, O Farrell.
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