Andy Farrell hints at a record number of Ireland players for Force on Saturday.
And the prediction is there could be as many as eight Ireland players in the side - with the 2025 'gag' being rolled out - the scoreboard will show Ireland and British Lions!
Essentially the focus for Force will turn to those who were unavailable last weekend and who arrived 'late' to camp following club duties.
These include the dozen-strong Leinster contingent albeit Ronan Kelleher and Tadhg Furlong got a run from the bench - and did reasonably well - against Argentina while Jamison Gibson-Park and Hugo Keenan are still being tasked with light work only.Said Andy Farrell of the injuries holding Keenan and Gibson-Park back: 'We'll see how they pull up in midweek. Huw Jones is good, he's been training. He trained fully with us last week so he's up and running.
'We're here to build for what's going to be a fantastic Test series. We want to play some good rugby along the way.'We'll find out more about each other as we keep on going. Of course we'll analyse what went on against Argentina and why, but that's all part of the journey – to understand where we need to go next.'It's great to be here, this is what it's all about. We're here for a good time. Hopefully we can start this part of the tour off really well on Saturday.Farrell further indicated Bath's out-half Finn Russell and loosehead Will Stuart will come into immediate contention following their Premiership Final win over Leicester Tigers whose secondrow Ollie Chessum has also linked up with the squad.That makes for 37 of the 38 players in situ in Perth, the odd man out being Scotland star Blair Kinghorn who, based at Toulouse, is still 10 days or so away from joining the party.
Toulouse beat Bayonne 32-25 last weekend to earn a place in the Top 14 final against Bordeaux next Saturday (8.05pm local).Russell, Stuart and Chessum are expected to be named to start against Force while Garry Ringrose, James Lowe, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan and either James Ryan or Joe McCarthy are expected to be involved in the team.Marcus Smith is a front-runner to remain at full-back. Wales Tomos Williams is the likely no9.Force have their own problems to contend with following underperforming at Super Rugby level, finishing ninth of the 11 sides.That was despite being placed half-way at the half-way mark albeit operating out of the easier side of the initial draw. Their wins came at home to Fijian Drua, Moana Pasifika, Highlanders and away at Brumbies while there was a home draw with Hurricanes.Defeat by Waratahs on the last day of the season saw Force fail to climb above the 'Tahs to eighth.Coach Simon Cron, who will also coach the Aus/NZ XV scheduled to take on the Lions at the Adelaide Oval on July 12th (the fifth game in-country) and directly ahead of the First Test, has been feeling the heat."A number of guys in our team have given their heart and soul this year," said Cron after the Waratahs defeat."We have got to look at how we can add people around them to keep driving us forward and how we can push forward the ones that are still learning to get more consistent performances."The core group staying together is important for the club. A big area of growth for us is our rugby brains in key moments. We sometimes make it a bit hard for ourselves but that's where they've got to keep learning."Indeed there was some thinly disguised relief when Joe Schmidt, having put nine Force players in his initial squad for the Lions series, agreed to release five of them back to the club for the Lions game.They comprise veteran scrum-half Nic White, back-row Nick Champion De Crespigny, secondrow Dylan Swain, prop Tom Robertson and winger Dylan Pietsch.Out-half Ben Donaldson, full-back/winger Harry Potter, back-row Carlo Tizzano, secondrow and Force captain Jeremy Williams were retained by Schmidt.
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