'Go and get them' - Scott Cummings urges Lions to roar against Argentina
Friday's British & Irish Lions have been urged to get stuck into Argentina in Dublin on Friday night as Andy Farrell and his coaches look to make a pre-tour statement before touching down in Australia next week.
The Lions are set to face Los Pumas in a non-cap international at a sold-out Aviva Stadium, eight days out from their opening tour game against Western Force in Perth.
Head coach Farrell is scheduled to name his starting line-up and replacements on Thursday afternoon at 4pm with the bulk of the matchday 23 set to be formed from the 24 players who spent last week training together in camp in Portugal.
There is likely to be some representation from the Leinster, Bath and Leicester Tigers clubmen, who joined up with the squad in Dublin on Monday following their respective domestic finals 48 hours earlier, with the Lions looking particularly light at hooker and tighthead prop at Quinta do Lago last week and calling in England front-rowers Jamie George and Asher Okopu-Fordjur as cover for the camp.
Hooker George and tighthead Okopu-Fordjur have now left Dublin to join the England XV squad preparing to face a France XV this Saturday, which means a potential bench place for one of Leinster's reprepresentatives at hooker in Ronan Kelleher and Dan Sheehan behind likely starter Luke Cowan-Dickie while Bath's Will Stuart may be asked to back possible starting tighthead Finlay Bealham.
There are no such problems at lock where Leicester's Ollie Chessum and Leinster duo Joe McCarthy and James Ryan will likely get an extra few days' rest as Lions captain Maro Itoje, Munster and Ireland's Tadhg Beirne and Glasgow and Scotland's Scott Cummings get the chance to put their two weeks together on the Lions training ground into practice.
Cummings, 28, is relishing the opportunity to make an early impact should it come.
'I think the coaches have put it on us,' the 42-cap Scottish second row said.
'We've only been together for a short period of time so there will be some mistakes. We're still learning our systems over the past couple of weeks, but Friday is a massive opportunity for us to show what we've been working on.
'We have high quality players across the team, and they're just telling us to go and make rugby decisions; attack it, don't sit back and let Argentina play their style. Go and get them, go and show what we can do as a team..
'It's a massive occasion. If I'm lucky enough to get selected it will be a huge moment for anyone.'
With England skipper Itoje set to lead the Lions into the three-Test series against Australia next month, presumably from the second row, the competition to partner him will intensify as Chessum, McCarthy and Ryan come on stream.
'I think as a squad we've come together well, but we're all on this journey together. We have to help each other out.
'It's a good thing for second rows, because you need a partner. It's not like it's just one person in your position. We need all the second rows playing well so that when someone swaps in there are partners and you have to build those relationships.
'We're all here to compete for a Test jersey and put ourselves out there to compete for the team. We also want to win the Lions series, that's the main objective as a squad, to win the series.
'It's going to be competitive, but we know we've been good at getting each other on the right page, so that as a squad we compete.'
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