‘Open-minded' Andy Farrell says Lions Test places still up for grabs
The Brumbies are the strongest of Australia's Super Rugby franchises, having finished third in the table, and the fixture is being treated as a dry run for the series opener against the Wallabies on July 19.
Our team to face the Brumbies in Canberra! 🦁#Lions2025
— British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) July 7, 2025
But Farrell insisted his Lions stars still have to earn the jersey after leaving the door open for others to stake their claim, with Saturday's match against an AUNZ Invitational XV the final opportunity to impress.
'The truth of the matter is we have got a good side that's going to take the field on Wednesday and I will tell you what I said to the team,' the head coach said.
'There's always going to be speculation, but it's up to people to put their best foot forward for a Test spot from now on in with regards to the chance they have got on Wednesday and on Saturday.
'Players can play themselves in and players can play themselves out, but we are looking for a cohesive team performance and that is what we are trying to achieve.
'There has to be movement in selection. The nature of the format of these two games allows for us to be open-minded.
'We play on Saturday after this and have four weeks worth of training, so you have to stay open-minded. A closed book is not good for anyone.
'I wouldn't call it a blank slate, you have always got ideas, but you need to leave wriggle room for things to unfold and make a judgement on what you see over the next couple of games.'
Providing X-factor on the bench are back row Henry Pollock and versatile playmaker Marcus Smith in an opportunity for both England stars to prove they are viable options against Australia.
In normal circumstances flanker Tom Curry and prop Tadhg Furlong would be assured of Test places, but they need big games following underwhelming tours so far.
Prop Ellis Genge, flanker Ollie Chessum and full-back Blair Kinghorn must also put their best foot forwards amid fierce competition for places. The likes of Dan Sheehan, Itoje, Gibson-Park, Russell and Jack Conan are nailed-on starters.
After a disappointing performance against the New South Wales Waratahs on Saturday, the Lions are looking to build momentum before heading to Adelaide for their penultimate midweek game.
The Brumbies were the only provincial side to beat the Lions in 2013 and are dangerous opponents.
Team is in for @lionsofficial 🦁
The Hooper brothers could play together for the first time in a professional capacity.
Prop Cameron Orr has also been drafted in for this game and could also make his Brumbies debut from the bench.
Read more: https://t.co/qPplU221kJ pic.twitter.com/t8KQSAwZvZ
— ACT Brumbies (@BrumbiesRugby) July 7, 2025
'There is a real sense of excitement because there's a lot of history that goes with this fixture,' Farrell said.
'The last two occasions we have played the Brumbies there have been four points in it, for and against. We know the challenge ahead and it's something we have been looking forward to.
'I have heard reports of how enthusiastic and good training has been for the Brumbies as you would expect when the Lions are coming to town.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
10 hours ago
- BBC News
Lions back-row mix remains a puzzler
Joe Schmidt exited the GIO Stadium in Canberra on Wednesday night with a smile and a nod for everyone who looked in his visiting fans were milling about, perhaps wondering what to make of all the good, the bad and the ugly from the British and Irish Lions' 36-24 win against the Brumbies, the Wallabies coach was a picture of contentment. "Hello there... How're ya doing…"In a bad week - his team's stumbling performance against Fiji followed by a downbeat press conference about how low Wallaby expectations are of turning over the Lions, and then the loss of his fly-half Noah Lolesio through injury - this must have been a bit of a pick-me-up for was smiling just to be friendly, of course, but if you're in his position and you've just watched what looked like the Lions Test team concede four tries and 15 turnovers to a Brumbies team missing eight of their best players, then you'd be entitled to feel some encouragement, even if things in his own garden aren't exactly mixed bag, the curate's egg. We're running out of ways of describing the Lions who roar, but only occasionally. The Lions did deliver a lot that was sharp and classy. The good was very good, but shipping so many points to a second-string Brumbies, whose first string is hardly stellar in rugby's grand scheme, is not the stuff of the Lions are progressing, then it's stop-start, so if they're going to blow the doors off in the Test series - which begins on 19 July - then they have a bit to find. There's a sense, though, they have it in them. There are too many good players. Not great ones, but very good ones. Wednesday was supposed to be the night we saw a message delivered to the Wallabies right between the eyes. In the end, it kind of grazed their ear and nothing more. Can somebody make the Lions breakdown make sense? Anyone could see where the Lions are struggling the most - the breakdown. They've tried all manner of different combinations and they're still toiling, still being hunted by voracious Australian forwards and still being pinged by referees who are watching them closely. The Lions now have a reputation on the floor and it's not a good the Pumas, head coach Andy Farrell went with Tom Curry, Jac Morgan and Ben Earl as his six, seven and eight. Against the Force in Perth, he had Tadhg Beirne, Josh van der Flier and Henry Pollock. A few days later, against the Reds in Brisbane, it was Curry, Morgan and Jack Conan. Then, Beirne, Van der Flier and Earl against the Waratahs (where a former beer delivery man called Charlie Gamble bossed the show). And against the Brumbies it was Ollie Chessum, Curry and wants to give all of his back rows a proper chance, but he's done that now and he still hasn't hit on a trio that can deal effectively with the breakdown against opponents who are seriously denuded of international class, most of them away with the Wallabies. What would these games have been like had the provincial teams fielded full-strength sides? The problems keep happening. Chessum is a horse of a man who's aggressive and can shift, so maybe he's in the box-seat at blindside. Conan carried big again on Wednesday and he'll be the number eight. Who's the seven?Against the Brumbies, Curry was given the chance to play himself into the Test team and didn't really convince. Does Farrell persist? Does he send for Morgan? Or does he revert to Van der Flier, his seven with Ireland, and a guy he knows better than the rest?Morgan is the closest thing the Lions have to an old school groundhog. It's head-wrecking. Round and round we go. It's one of the few big selection dilemmas the coaches have left before the first Test. Big Tadhg might just be stirring He's been quiet. Too quiet. But keeping Tadhg Furlong quiet for long is a job that's proved beyond the ken of most rival props over the course of his storied has hit him hard this past while. Big games have come and gone for club and country and he hasn't been seen. In the early rumblings on this tour he didn't look himself, it didn't look like the world-class talent that stretches from his top to his toe was still maybe we're over-analysing. There were signs of a beast awakening against the Brumbies. A good scrummaging performance, some big work around the field, an engine running more powerfully and for longer than recently.A friend messaged when Furlong took his leave of the action in Canberra. This friend talks of scrummaging in ways that are at times, frankly, a little disconcerting. The passion rises within him when the props do their thing."Tadhg is timing his run. The great man is on his way." I bow to the knowledge. Is there a curse on the Lions number 15 jersey? Farrell would not be drawn on the left knee injury to Blair Kinghorn that caused him to leave the pitch after 25 said that the Toulouse full-back was down the corridor getting treatment - and singing. Always upbeat, Kinghorn. Let's hope it stays that coach has already lost one wonderful full-back in Elliot Daly, then watched another, Hugo Keenan, suffer illness and withdraw from the Reds game in Brisbane. Keenan then had a bad day against the will hopefully be fine, but the way things are going at 15, it's hard to fight the fatalism. Farrell is on record saying that he has loads of full-backs, or players who can do a turn at exactly loads. He's got Keenan, Marcus Smith, Huw Jones, Mack Hansen, maybe. For a Lions series? A stretch. Only one of those is a stock–in-trade full-back, although England are trying to turn Smith into one. Best just offer up some positive thoughts for Kinghorn. Daly's loss was a punch to the solar plexus. Kinghorn's loss would be a firm kick in the unmentionables. A decent night for the Irish centres Bundee Aki and Garry Ringrose versus Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones. That's a first-world problem, that. That's two midfield combinations of the highest class. Quite honestly, the Test Lions would be in safe hands with either got off to a ropey start in Canberra but grew into it and ran with directness. Ringrose was just quality in pretty much everything he did. In the nicest possible sense, he's a madman for the physical exchanges, a missile, as Tuipulotu called him after they played together in they locked in now? Close. What about the midfield cover on the bench, if Farrell thinks he needs it? Tuipulotu (a close enough swap with Aki), Jones (a phenomenal attacker if you need one). Or, hmmm, somebody else… Owen, and 22 other blokes, will play on Saturday How many players split opinion like Owen Farrell? How many have the capacity to turn a perfectly lovely evening into a skin-and-hair-flying slugfest at the mere mention of his name and whether he should be here or not?He will feature against the AUNZ Invitational team in Adelaide on Saturday, a tricky assignment given the decent calibre of player they have managed to put together. He has had one training session in 10 game since 4 May, 18 minutes since 27 April and no Test match in 20 months. In recent times he has had a groin operation, a visit to a specialist in Doha, a concussion that has kept him out for hope he can breeze back in and be the Owen Farrell he once was, when he hasn't been that Owen Farrell for at least a year, and has been an in-and-out version of that Owen Farrell for a lot more years than that. At times wondrous, at other times ordinary, at different times injured, at all times talked man has been a great, great player. Modern rugby titans - Johnny Sexton, Maro Itoje - revere him, so seeing what he can do on Saturday after so long away from this kind of scene is going to be Lion could play the house down at the weekend but it'll still be about Farrell. Every cough and splutter. Every set of eyes upon him. It's obsessional, it's wrong, but it's irresistible.
BBC News
12 hours ago
- BBC News
Farrell not fearful of losing Kinghorn to knee injury
British and Irish Lions head coach Andy Farrell said Blair Kinghorn was "in good spirits" despite suffering a knee injury in the Lions' win over the said the full-back, who was replaced by Marcus Smith after 25 minutes in Canberra, was singing on the bed where the staff were assessing Scotland star initially tried to run off the injury before going after the match if he feared the worst for Kinghorn, Farrell said: "No."Blair is in good spirits. He got a bang on the knee, he carried on for quite a bit but there was no need to keep him going."He's on the bed now, singing away. There is a bit of music there and he's singing away as he's being assessed, so we'll see how he comes through that."It's late, we have got an early flight in the morning and I don't know what the medical plan is, but we will get on top of that."Ireland's Hugo Keenan and Marcus Smith are Farrell's other full-back options for the first Test against Australia on 19 July in 29, has only played once on tour after recovering from a calf injury and illness, while Smith prefers to play at Daly started the first two games in Australia at full-back before departing the squad because of a fractured arm.
Leader Live
12 hours ago
- Leader Live
Unconvincing Lions labour to patchy victory over ACT Brumbies
The Lions slowly pulled clear with second-half tries from Garry Ringrose and Josh van der Flier, but the strongest line-up fielded by Andy Farrell so far on tour were unconvincing with the series opener against Australia just 10 days away. It was a side that looked less than the sum of their parts, firing only sporadically but with the individual class to ensure an upset against opponents who were missing eight Wallabies was never on the cards. It's all over in Canberra 🦁#Lions2025 — British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) July 9, 2025 Hooker Dan Sheehan, centre Garry Ringrose and flanker Ollie Chessum caught the eye on a cold night at GIO Stadium, but others in the starting XV face an anxious wait to see if they have played their way out of Test contention. Adding to the Lions' problems was Blair Kinghorn's departure in the 25th minute with a knee injury, placing pressure on their options at full-back given Elliot Daly has returned home with a fractured forearm to leave Hugo Keenan as the only other recognised 15 in the squad. The Brumbies are Australia's strongest Super Rugby franchise and had history on their side after humbling Warren Gatland's tourists in 2013. Pre-match footage of their changing room showed a team determined to make their mark and they started like a freight train by winning a series of forward collisions that ended with Tuaina Taii-Tualima diving over. The Lions had been outmuscled as part of a poor opening, but they settled with Finn Russell sending Chessum over and the Scotland fly-half was beginning to penetrate the home defence with the variety of his passing. Kinghorn was replaced by Marcus Smith and while the mistakes that have been a theme of the tour continued, the ball was being moved at speed and having produced some big forward carries, there was space for James Lowe to cross. Smith's fallibility at full-back was exposed when he strayed infield and the Brumbies pounced with a long floated pass to Corey Toole, presenting the wing with an easy finish. But Smith scored himself on the stroke of half-time, the beneficiary of sharp passing by Russell and Tom Curry during a passage of play that saw the Lions click. A 19-10 lead was a poor return from a patchy first-half but daylight opened up when a driving run from Ringrose saw the Ireland centre link with Smith before touching down his grubber. Hudson Creighton went over as the Lions' scrum defence opened up and the error count continued to rise with at least Henry Pollock impressing with a break in the wide channel. Van der Flier was on the end of a driving maul but the Brumbies would not go away, Liam Bowron powering over from close range with five minutes left.
