Lions captain Maro Itoje not a guaranteed Test starter thanks to Joe McCarthy

Telegraph

5 hours ago

It always felt as though this British and Irish Lions squad were ripe for first-time tourists to assert themselves. Two matches in, that hunch has already been validated.
After excellent displays from Ellis Genge and Finlay Bealham against Argentina, the stand-out performers in a convincing victory over Western Force were Dan Sheehan, Josh van der Flier, Henry Pollock and Mack Hansen.
Even more impressive than those latter three was Joe McCarthy, the rambunctious Ireland lock who has put Andy Farrell on course for a horrible quandary. The race for Test places among the Lions back-five forwards is now so competitive that nobody – not even captain Maro Itoje – can be absolutely assured of involvement.
Itoje returns to the engine room alongside Ollie Chessum to face the Reds, with Tom Curry, Jac Morgan and Jack Conan in the back row. James Ryan and Ben Earl are on Farrell's bench.
The only certainty at this stage is that some exceptional back-five forwards will be left out of the first meeting with Australia on July 19; and not just from the starting side, but from the match-day 23 – even if the Lions plump for a six-two split of replacements.
Balance is critical and no one position in the back five can be viewed in isolation, because careful thought must go into how those individuals complement one another. An in-form McCarthy offers the Lions rare assets and his inclusion would have a fascinating ripple effect.
This, from the 12th minute on Saturday with the scores level at 7-7 was a trademark intervention from the 24-year-old and a turnover that swung momentum. McCarthy fixes his gaze on opposition line-out leader Sam Carter…
…and stays down as the throw comes in from Force hooker Brandon Paenga-Amosa. At one stage, Carter appears to have defied the challenge but McCarthy wrestles the ball back for a clean steal:
In the absence of a burly, bopping No 8 in the Lions' squad, McCarthy's combination of heft and athleticism holds greater value. He finished with 15 carries to go with 17 tackles against the Force and demonstrated his versatility with ball in hand.
This was his first run of the game and he earns impetus by shrugging off a tackle and crossing the gain-line at the front of a three-man pod:
Here, McCarthy shoulders the same responsibility as the Lions come back in-field from close to a touchline. Scenarios like this, battling back against the grain with defenders pressing up, is among the most arduous a carrier can encounter:
McCarthy dents the defensive line again, with Finn Russell sending a kick-pass over to Sheehan for the Lions' first try on the very next phase.
In the second half, McCarthy was the target for this line-out:
From there, he held his width and eventually had a charge out wide:
There were smart, skilful moments as well. Watch how he sparks Tomos Williams' second try from this position in the defensive line:
McCarthy is aware of the need to move the ball to space and steps up at scrum-half to find Russell. Williams, on the edge of the defensive line, does not even shape back towards the breakdown, trusting that someone else will service the ruck and play the pass from the base:
Watch Tadhg Beirne's support play in this video from Sky Sports. He travels some 70 metres to shepherd Williams to the whitewash in a subtle example of his game intelligence:
From one end to another in NO TIME! ⚡️
Tomos Williams finishes off a flowing Lions counterattack! 😍 pic.twitter.com/qAtHVJx7YB
— Sky Sports (@SkySports) June 28, 2025
Weighing around 124kg, McCarthy is not the springiest jumper and has tended to be joined by rangy back-rowers such as Ryan Baird or Peter O'Mahony with Leinster and Ireland. Farrell attempted a similar balance by picking Beirne at blindside flanker last weekend.
Here, McCarthy is targeted at the front of the line-out. Though the Lions do win back possession, competition from Carter causes the platform to be scruffy:
Scott Cummings bore the brunt of a shambolic restart operation, but McCarthy was not immune. The Force sent a goal-line drop-out towards the latter in the second period, and a spill resulted under pressure from the superb Dylan Pietsch:
Chessum undoubtedly increased his stock in Perth upon replacing Cummings. Force tired, but the Lions line-out seemed to become more precise. Watch this five-man set-up. McCarthy, Conan and Chessum are book-ended by Andrew Porter and Will Stuart with Josh van der Flier in the receiver slot and Pollock out in midfield:
Conan steps out with McCarthy moving back to lift Chessum with the support of Stuart at the tail. A maul is established quickly and the Lions rumble some 10 metres up the pitch:
Chessum is evidently a shrewd line-out caller and works space for McCarthy here. The Lions run a 'seven plus one' with Alex Mitchell at the front and Van der Flier again in the receiver role. Pollock, McCarthy, Chessum and Conan are in the middle:
Pollock steps around Chessum, who seems like the jumper:
But instead it is McCarthy who jumps with a lift from Pollock and Conan:
The blindside flanker position is often the key to balancing a back five and it always looked as though Farrell would need to make use of Beirne, Chessum or even Itoje there.
Yet the Force game was Beirne's fourth in the number six shirt this season. Chessum has worn it once, for Leicester Tigers' 80-12 loss in Toulouse, and you must go back to Eddie Jones' last autumn with England, in 2022, for Itoje's last start in the back row.
Steve Borthwick is one head coach to have explicitly moved away from starting lock-flanker hybrids in favour of more mobile back-row trios. Tom Curry started all five matches of this year's Six Nations at blindside flanker, the last three behind a second-row partnership of Chessum and Itoje.
Should Farrell follow suit in ditching hybrids, and if he feels that McCarthy must play, there is one starting lock spot remaining for Itoje, Chessum, Beirne, Ryan and Cummings to scrap over. None of them would expect to be shoo-ins. The company is just too illustrious.
Itoje and McCarthy, of course, is a perfectly viable pairing. That said, Chessum has enjoyed a formidable campaign and is becoming a polished all-rounder who can run a line-out while contributing in all facets. Beirne brings breakdown smarts and class on the ball. Both would be effective foils for McCarthy.
One of the most insightful and amusing titbits from the Lions' in-house YouTube documentary series so far has been a training ground exchange between Ellis Genge and scrum coach John Fogarty, with the former impressed by what Beirne contributes to the set-piece shove.
Fogarty: 'Gengey, how did the back five feel? Nice fire?
Genge: 'Yeah. Tadhg's f---ing good in there.'
Fogarty: 'Yeah he is. He's accurate, isn't he? He's not the biggest lad.'
Genge: 'He's 119 [kg], he said to me.'
Fogarty: '…nah.'
Genge: 'Nah? Blagging is he?'
Fogarty: 'Maybe.'
Whether or not Beirne had exaggerated his mass, which is listed online as 113kg, this is a compliment from Genge that was vindicated by the Lions' scrummaging efforts against Argentina.
In that game, Farrell began with this back-five arrangement. Note that Itoje scrummaged on the tighthead side, a responsibility usually reserved for the strongest lock because the prop in front of them is opposite the rival looshead and hooker:
Itoje deserves praise for the scrummaging results in Dublin. The line-out, his remit, was scrappy, though, and it was unusual to see him replaced late on – and more jarring because the Lions were striving to overhaul the Pumas. Beirne was kept on, and stayed on the loosehead side of the scrum as Cummings became the tighthead lock and Pollock replaced Morgan:
On Saturday, McCarthy was the Lions' tighthead lock throughout the 80 minutes:
However, the Force scrum was probably in the ascendancy until the tourists' tight five was refreshed by the introduction of Porter, Stuart and Chessum. Conan slipped to blindside flanker, too:
Conan will begin at the base of the Lions scrum on Wednesday in Brisbane between Curry and Morgan, yet his capacity to slip to six is something that Farrell could lean on to keep his pack pacey and punchy while also retaining line-out prowess.
Back at the start of February against England, Conan was crucial in shoring up the Ireland line-out as a replacement. Against the Force, he took this throw from Ronan Kelleher in the middle after Chessum offered himself at the front:
In theory, fielding Conan at blindside flanker would allow Farrell to have either Earl or Pollock at eight and therefore to assemble a speedy set of forwards. Van der Flier, understated and classy, and Pollock dovetailed well on both sides of the ball at Optus Stadium.
Williams' first try was fashioned by a tactical theme we will continue to see from the Lions' attack; bouncing back to the short side. Note the starting positions of Van der Flier, who is part of the previous ruck, and Pollock as Tadhg Furlong carries:
They re-set and Williams zigzags. Pollock lifts a deft tip-pass to Van der Flier to put his colleague through a half-gap. This, in turn, lets Van der Flier free his arms to find a looping Pollock with an offload. Athleticism and skills allow the Lions to navigate heavy traffic:
The challenge of picking a Test side at the thorny end of a Lions tour – particularly in the back five – is about recognising how and where chemistry has developed between new team-mates. Those unleashed against the Reds will be eager to state their cases and the meeting with Brumbies on July 9 looks like it may end up as a dry run for Test combinations.
But McCarthy's performance against the Force has laid down a gauntlet, both as far as his own prospects and how his inclusion could impact the rest of the Lions team.