Andy Farrell opts for Irish core to Lions line-up for first Test

Tadhg Furlong playing for British & Irish Lions against Argentina at Aviva Stadium. Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Tadhg Furlong will make his seventh consecutive Test start for the British & Irish Lions on Saturday, one of a record eight Ireland players set to start against Australia in the opening Test of the 2025 series at Suncorp stadium.

Lions head coach Andy Farrell revealed his hand in Brisbane on Thursday morning Irish time and named a further three Irishmen among his replacements.

Furlong, 32, will be continuing a run of Test starts that began in New Zealand eight years ago in the 2017 series drawn with the All Blacks as well as all three Tests against South Africa four years ago.

The tighthead’s season had been disrupted by a series of calf issues and came on tour having played his last game for Leinster in the Champions Cup semi-final home loss to Northampton Saints on May 3. Yet Furlong has staked his claim with a series of strong performances in Australia as part of front row with England loosehead prop Ellis Genge and Leinster and Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan.

That trio has been named en bloc to start the first Test in in a side captained by Maro Itoje, the England lock, who will partner Ireland’s Joe McCarthy in the second row. The back row features two Irishmen, blindside flanker Tadhg Beirne and No.8 Jack Conan, both of whom faced the Springboks in 2021 with Saturday’s game marking Conan’s fourth consecutive Test start in his position.

The Lions backline to face the Wallabies, coached by former Ireland boss Joe Schmidt, includes Jamison Gibson-Park at scrum-half in a half-back partnership with Scotland fly-half Finn Russell, while the back three includes James Lowe on the left wing and Hugo Keenan at full-back with England’s Tommy Freeman named on the right wing.

Beirne’s selection at number six in a back row also featuring England’s Tom Curry at openside flanker resolves two of the most debated positions in this Lions team. In picking Beirne, Andy Farrell has opted to add a hybrid lock/flanker to bolster lineout options rather than choose a more orthodox back-rower while Curry has won an intense competition for the number seven jersey that means there is no place in the starting line-up for his in-form positional rivals Jac Morgan of Wales and Ireland’s Josh van der Flier.

Furlong and Sheehan will be joined in the Lions front row by English loosehead prop Ellis Genge, who is chosen ahead another Irishman in Andrew Porter.

And in the centres Farrell has opted for a familiar and settled Scotland partnership of Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones, with 2021 Test inside centre Bundee Aki unlucky to miss out.

Aki, though, has been named on a bench of five forwards and three backs, with English duo Alex Mitchell and Marcus Smith covering the starting half-backs, meaning no place for Owen Farrell, the England Test centurion and now three-time Lions tourists brought in by his father, head coach Andy, to replace the injured Elliot Daly.

Hooker Ronan Kelleher and loosehead Andrew Porter are the other Irish replacements for the Lions with a bench filled out with tighthead prop Will Stuart, lock/flanker Ollie Chessum, and back-rower Ben Earl, meaning no place in the 23 for either van der Flier or 20-year-old Henry Pollock.

BRITISH & IRISH LIONS: H Keenan (Ireland); T Freeman (England), H Jones (Scotland), S Tuipulotu (Scotland), J Lowe (Ireland); F Russell (Scotland), J Gibson-Park (Ireland); E Genge (England), D Sheehan (Ireland), T Furlong (Ireland); M Itoje (England) – captain, J McCarthy (Ireland); T Beirne (Ireland), T Curry (England), J Conan (Ireland).

Replacements: R Kelleher (Ireland), A Porter (Ireland), W Stuart (England), O Chessum (England), B Earl (England), A Mitchell (England), M Smith (England), B Aki (Ireland).