Bernard Jackman: Andy Farrell has skills to deal with any 'Irish bias' claims within Lions squad

RTÉ News​

6 hours ago

Bernard Jackman believes Andy Farrell's "biggest challenge" will be to allay any perception of partiality towards the Ireland contingent in his British and Irish Lions squad as they prepare for Friday's tour opener against Argentina at Aviva Stadium, but backs the head coach to have the man-management skills to smooth over any issues.
The Englishman has led Ireland to two Six Nations titles, including the 2023 Grand Slam, and his trust in players from this nation is reflected by their dominance in both the squad selection and staff make-up for the upcoming tour to Australia.
Finlay Bealham's call-up in place of the injured Scotland tighthead Zander Fagerson has brought the contingent of Ireland players to 16, with England (13), Scotland (8) and Wales (2) rounding out the 39-strong travelling party
A good chunk of that Irish number will have a strong case to start the first Test against Australia in Brisbane on 19 July and speaking on RTÉ 2fm's Game On, Jackman said picking a Lions team would be quite distinct from the challenge of navigating Ireland team selection.
"I think it's going to be the biggest challenge Andy Farrell is going to have is that there is never a peep out of anybody who's not picked for Ireland in Ireland because there's a sense of he's very fair and he's very good at explaining why players aren't picked and giving them areas they need to improve upon," he said.
"But that's a little bit different because there's a hierarchy there, so players earn their stripes, there's very little turnover in the Irish squad because the team tend to win, players perform well.
"So the guys who are the non-23, they don't really have a great case because they're not tried and tested internationals."
The task of picking a Lions XI would be much different considering the players in the squad are the cream of the crop of their respective nations.
"Whereas here, you're going to leave out fellas who are superstars in their own country or superstars in their club and have a big reputation and maybe have big egos," Jackman continued.
"And if they feel that there's a bias towards Irish players, that could be difficult. I think Farrell has the man-management skills to deal with that.
"But he has given them a definite argument by how many Irish players, coaches and backroom staff - Gary Keegan, the mental skills coach was added this week, the head of S&C (and) head of performance is Irish, the head analyst is Irish - so there is a big Irish influence.
"But honestly, if anyone can do it, Farrell can do it. But certainly if it becomes clear quite early that he's going to pick more Irish players and (if) they haven't earned the right, that's the challenge.
"The pressure is now on his Irish players to show they're better and I think if they do that, it'll be okay.
"But if there are a lot of marginal calls (that) go towards the Irish players, there could be a bit of disharmony and we've seen that disrupt and destroy Lions tours in the past."