logo
Extra Lions needed for Argentina game could lead to Owen Farrell call-up

Extra Lions needed for Argentina game could lead to Owen Farrell call-up

Times09-05-2025

Andy Farrell will need to pick extra British & Irish Lions for the pre-tour match against Argentina, which may open the door to Owen Farrell and Jamie George.
Having named a preliminary 38-man squad on Thursday, Farrell flagged that he had left spots open for those who could join the group.
The Times understands that Farrell and his assistant coaches have planned to add players to the squad, in the scenario that the United Rugby Championship and Gallagher Premiership finals involve swathes of the initial group.
Those extra Lions will be required before the touring party have even left these shores for Australia, with the match against Argentina in Dublin on Friday, June 20, falling only six days after the URC and Premiership finals.
Those

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Stuart Broad to help out South Africa bowlers but not interested in coaching job
Stuart Broad to help out South Africa bowlers but not interested in coaching job

South Wales Argus

time22 minutes ago

  • South Wales Argus

Stuart Broad to help out South Africa bowlers but not interested in coaching job

Broad will join the Proteas as a consultant for the day on Monday, working with their pacemen in preparation for the World Test Championship final against defending champions Australia at Lord's. His media commitments as a Sky Sports cricket expert mean he will not be part of their backroom staff at the home of cricket for the one-off winner-takes-all match, which gets under way next Wednesday. Stuart Broad retired from playing at the end of the 2023 Ashes (Mike Egerton/PA) As for whether this could be the precursor to something more substantial, Broad rejected the notion out of hand, highlighting the onerous commitments such a job entails. He told the PA news agency: 'I enjoy talking about bowling, it's what I probably know most about, but I don't want the level of travel that full-time coaching brings at the moment. 'I want to stay connected to the game. The game moves forward so quickly; being around young players is really good. 'It's not just for your knowledge on the game but also for your punditry as well – understanding what new players are looking at to develop their game.' Broad is the fifth most prolific Test bowler ever with 604 Test wickets, while only great friend and long-time opening bowling partner James Anderson, with exactly 100 more, is above him among Englishmen. Lord's was a happy hunting ground for Broad with 113 Test wickets at an average of 27.66 and nobody has taken more Australia scalps in the format than the 38-year-old's 153. It is no surprise it was South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad who approached Broad, who will pass on tips to Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen about dealing with the notorious Lord's slope. Broad, who retired from playing at the end of the 2023 Ashes, said: 'I certainly wouldn't be going in and talking about individuals' actions before one of the biggest games of their careers. 'It's very much about the tactics of that particular ground and the nuances which that slope brings. A lot of overseas bowlers can sometimes take a spell to get used to playing there. 'I'll just have conversations with a few of their guys on field placements and how to settle and just the differences that Lord's can bring to different bowlers.' Nobody has more Test wickets against Australia than Broad, right (John Walton/PA) As for whether he will be clad in a South Africa tracksuit, Broad said: 'I don't have a clue. I won't buy one from a club shop. I'll be turning up in my casuals and see where we go.' The opportunity gives Broad another crack at Australia, with whom he had a long and storied history. However, Broad added: 'I hadn't really considered that. Their team has changed a little bit since I last played. 'Although I'm doing a bit of work with South Africa, I'm commentating on the game, so I'm not leaning one way or the other.' :: Watch all five England-India Test matches live on Sky Sports Cricket and NOW from June 20th.

‘I love the chaos' – Why Fabio Wardley's fight with Justis Huni won't even be the biggest night of his month
‘I love the chaos' – Why Fabio Wardley's fight with Justis Huni won't even be the biggest night of his month

The Sun

time28 minutes ago

  • The Sun

‘I love the chaos' – Why Fabio Wardley's fight with Justis Huni won't even be the biggest night of his month

FABIO WARDLEY has the two most important nights of his life inside the next 10 DAYS. Ipswich's 30-year-old former recruitment worker and white-collar boxer headlines Portman Road on Saturday night against tough Australian Justis Huni. 3 And on June 16 his partner is scheduled to give birth to his first child, a bouncing baby girl. For anyone else, the nail-biting fortnight would be a crippling rollercoaster of emotions impossible to combine. But the Suffolk Puncher - who went on an Oleksandr Usyk sparring trip to Ukraine in 2018 when he barely knew how to throw a jab - is loving the chaos. The class act told SunSport: 'June 2025 is going to be a wild month I talk a lot about, for the rest of my life. 'I will be an old man in a rocking chair, telling people about it and wondering how we pulled it off. 'Everything has come together at the same time, it might seem a bit hectic but I wouldn't have it any other way. I thrive on it, I love the chaos.' Nine months ago, the 18-0-1 ace got the wonderful news he would be a dad for the first time. And a few weeks later he got the offer of a lifetime, to headline at his boyhood football club, a chance that some Olympic and world champions never get. 3 It seems like a psychological and logistical nightmare that would be destined for the divorce courts but Team Wardley is way too tight. 'If my little girl is anything like me, then she'll be chilled out and late, which will give me a little bit more time to decompress from the fight,' he grinned. Fabio Wardley faces off with Justis Huni ahead of his homecoming fight 'The flight date has been moved around a few times but my missus has been unbelievable. 'I have just promised to her that, as soon as Saturday night is over, I am all theirs. 'This week, though, is just my week. I need to be totally focused on me and then it's all on them.' Wardley - who cracked 2020 Olympic bronze winner Frazer Clarke's skull in their one-round rematch in October - somehow combines being a brutal boxer with being a lovely bloke and he insists that won't change with another win or a baby. 'I don't know how parenthood will affect me,' he said. 'I do plan to be the fun-dad though. I want mum to do the telling off. 'I think I will always be driven to push myself in everything, though. Everything has come together at the same time, it might seem a bit hectic but I wouldn't have it any other way. I thrive on it, I love the chaos. 'That's something just innate in me. And I am sure I will need to feed and stoke that fire regularly.' One thing Wardley would NEVER do, despite the baffling suggestion from some clumsy pundits, is fight his mentor and pal Dillian Whyte. After following all of Wardley's career, we were stunned to hear the idea even mooted and Wardley floored it. 'You're 100 per cent right, for once.' he laughed. 'From the second it would be announced, everybody who knows the sport and who knows us, would know it would be fake and not something I would ever do, because of the amount of love, respect and admiration I have for Dills. 'People go on about my story, white-collar, coming from nowhere, sparring Usyk. "But none of that is possible without Dillian at the beginning, giving me all of these opportunities. So I would never spit in his face and fight him. 'Even if all the sanctioning bodies called for the fight and somebody was silly enough to put all the money up, I would take a knee in the first round and give him the win.' 3

Rugby's clutch king Handre Pollard: I don't practise that much
Rugby's clutch king Handre Pollard: I don't practise that much

Telegraph

time43 minutes ago

  • Telegraph

Rugby's clutch king Handre Pollard: I don't practise that much

In the United States, the term 'clutch' is used to describe players who consistently deliver under the greatest of pressures, usually with the game on the line. If Michael Jordan and Tom Brady were the prime exponents of this skill in the NBA and NFL respectively, then Handre Pollard is rugby's clutch king. The Leicester Tigers fly-half is preparing for a Premiership semi-final against Sale Sharks who will be well aware of his formidable record in a knockout setting. In World Cups, no one has administered more dagger blows than the player they call the Iceman in South Africa. In the 2019 World Cup, Pollard kicked a decisive 76th minute penalty to down Wales in the semi-final before booting a further 22 points in the final against England. Four years later, Pollard kicked a penalty from inside his own half to see the Springboks past France in the quarter-finals. A 78th penalty in the semi-final against England took South Africa to the final where he kicked all their points in a 12-11 victory over New Zealand. Somehow the higher the stakes, the cooler Pollard becomes; he did not miss a single shot at goal in the 2023 World Cup knockout stages where the Springboks recorded three successive one-point victories. 'I do around 20 kicks a week' Whole books and documentaries have been devoted to examining Jordan and Brady's ability to deliver game-winning moments consistently. I have always been fascinated by Pollard's own approach, particularly when it comes to kicking a penalty with the result on the line. In potentially his last interview as a Leicester Tigers player before he joins the Bulls in South Africa, the insight Pollard provides is revealing as much for what he does not do rather than what he does. By fly-half standards, he barely practises kicking in training. 'You probably won't believe me – I will kick twice in the week and maybe on captain's run,' Pollard says. 'I will do around 20 kicks a week. That's it. That's just my process. I have a number in my mind before I start kicking on a day, which is normally between eight and 10 but if I feel good after six I will stop.' By contrast, a typical Premiership fly-half will kick hundreds of times a week. He does not undertake any pre-match visualisation process such as those George Ford, his opposite number on Saturday, swears by. 'Nope, I don't do that. Just kick my kicks,' he says. Nor does he have any mental checklist after he's put the ball on the tee. 'When you are kicking at your best, you are not really thinking about anything. The clearer your mind is, the better – so muscle memory can take over and practice takes over. Whenever you think 'technical stuff' before a kick then you are generally in a bad spot because you are overthinking it. I try to clear the mind as far as I can. It is really not exciting.' 'It just has to be automatic' By his own admission, goal-kicking was never a skill that came naturally. Yet Pollard has not had a personal kicking coach since he was 22 and says his technical process contains no great mysteries. 'It is honestly very simple,' Pollard said. 'First of all you align the ball. If you stuff that up at the beginning then you are in a downward spiral. 'After that it is four steps back and then just focus on planting my foot well and getting my bodyweight through the ball. Kicking is very personal to the individual. It evolves over time, but it is whatever works for you. A lot of it is trial by error until you find something that works for you. After the 2019 World Cup, I changed my run-up from six steps to four steps because the fewer steps you take the less chance of error there is, especially later in games. When you get tired, your run-up can become inconsistent. 'Kicking is a mental thing – probably about 90 per cent mental and 10 per cent technique. If the process is simple and the routine is simple, then the fixes can be simple. If it is overcomplicated then there can be too many things going through your mind. Especially with the shot clocks these days, you don't have time to think about it. It just has to be automatic.' If there is a secret to Pollard's almost supernatural calmness under pressure, it is that he relishes his role as the clutch king and the responsibility that comes with that. It is a peculiar role within a sport with so many moving parts and variables that all the chaos frequently boils down to a goal-kicker's test of nerve. Particularly in a World Cup setting when the hopes of millions rest upon your shoulders, that weight of responsibility can feel crushing to some. Pollard, meanwhile, not just embraces but actively enjoys the prospect of lining up a penalty with the game on the line. 'I absolutely love it,' Pollard said. 'It is what you dream of. You don't dream of taking a kick when you are 20 points up. That's what you grow up wanting to do. You should enjoy that moment. The older you get, that feeling of pressure and excitement, you are not going to find that many more times in your life so you have to cherish it. 'I will say in tight games you have to address that something is going to come in the next few minutes. Some guys might try to shy away from that in their mind thinking someone else might score a try and I won't have to take a kick. But I find if you address it early enough in your mind that it is probably going to come down to a kick then you can relax and enjoy it.' None of this is to say that Pollard is infallible from the tee. This season in the Premiership he is kicking at 85 per cent, second only to Marcus Smith among frontline goalkickers, but he has had plenty of down seasons. While he says every miss 'p----- him off', he also has learnt to process those failures in a way that Jonny Wilkinson, the previous clutch king, was never able to. 'You can't dwell on them too long or look into it much,' Pollard said. 'If you miss, then you have to move on. You will kill yourself if you look back at your misses too often. Fortunately in rugby, you get to kick a few times in the game.' The 31-year-old vividly remembers missing three shots at goal in the 2015 World Cup quarter-final against Wales. 'A couple of my senior team-mates said to me 'we will back you no matter what so keep going' and I ended up getting a drop-goal,' Pollard said. 'When your team-mates back you and give you that confidence then you know what you are capable of. 'Again it is a privilege that you can be that guy for your team, whoever you are representing. You have to make your peace with it that it is not going to come off every single time. Life does not work that way. Once you accept that it takes a lot of pressure off.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store