Lions v Wallabies: First Test winners and losers
WINNERS AND LOSERS: Hugo Keenan, Tom Curry and Sione Tuipulotu made the starting XV while Bundee Aki has been named in the replacements Jac Morgan and Josh van der Flier are unlucky to miss out.
Congratulations to Curry who has held off the claims of Jac Morgan, Henry Pollock and Josh van der Flier to wear the number seven jersey at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday. Both Morgan and van Flier have spent more time in that jersey in the preceding tour games with Curry having had just one start at openside flanker. He also has inferior tackle stats to Morgan and van der Flier and has turnover Lions ball more times than his rivals, making almost 50 per cent fewer metres from the same number of carries as Wales’s Morgan. Yet Curry is a proven Lions Test starter who started at seven in all three Tests against South Africa four years ago.
Scotland’s captain may well have started this opening Test at inside centre alongside compatriot Huw Jones regardless, but Garry Ringrose’s concussion against the Brumbies nine days ago brought an end to hopes of an all-Irish midfield pairing. Tuipulotu has not been pulling up trees so far on this tour and positional rival Bundee Aki has performed better but the Australian-born 12 appears to have benefitted from the desire to play an established pairing rather than mix and match.
Keenan’s selection at full-back caps a remarkable rebound from a nightmarish start to his first Lions tour. Arriving in Australia injured, the Ireland back then contracted a virus that left him reeling for 12 days. He still had the bug when he made his Lions debut against the Waratahs a fortnight ago and his poor performance in Sydney might have ended his Test hopes there and then. Yet Keenan has been nothing if not resilient and he grabbed his second chance, aided by injury to Blair Kinghorn, with both hands with an impressive display last Saturday in Adelaide against an AUSNZ Invitational XV.
A nation weeps with Morgan’s omission from the Lions matchday 23, as Wales fail to provide a Test player to the famous touring side for the first time since 1896. There is some justification for Welsh frustration given his productivity at openside flanker in three tour games.
You could say the same for van der Flier as was mentioned about Morgan, as the 2022 World Rugby Player of the Year gets ready to watch the first Test at Suncorp Stadium from the stands. Both men seem to have lost out to more powerful back-row rivals, with Tom Curry starting at openside flanker, backed up by fellow Englishman Ben Earl, whose versatility across the back row and as an auxiliary centre make him an ideal bench replacement. Yet having started 50 of the 56 Ireland Tests under Andy Farrell's watch, this omission will sting.
The Connacht and Ireland centre has the solace of a place on the bench as the outside backs replacement alongside Marcus Smith, who can cover 10 and 15, but Aki’s candidacy for the number 12 jersey was possibly compromised when his Irish midfield partner Garry Ringrose was concussed against the Brumbies in Canberra nine days ago and stood down for 12 days.
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