Farrell shows his hand while retaining scope for first Test tweaks
It looks like Stephen Larkham's side might need all the well wishes they can get for Wednesday's meeting with the Lions, who are fielding a Test-like team.
The pilot had just thanked Joe Schmidt and some of his Wallabies players for being onboard the plane from Newcastle. The Australians broke from camp after Sunday's narrow win over Fiji, getting a few days off before reconvening to build towards the first Lions Test in two weekends.
Speaking after his team's 21-18 victory, Schmidt said he was intrigued to see Andy Farrell's Lions selection for this game against the Brumbies. Schmidt's thinking was that it would be a strong indicator of Farrell's plans for the first Test. And so it seems to be.
This is the Lions warm-up team that every player surely wanted to be part of.
Maybe not at the start of the tour when it looked like the final friendly game against the AUNZ Invitational side on Saturday would be the last Test rehearsal a week out from that clash with the Wallabies in Brisbane.
But as things shifted in recent weeks, it started to appear that this Wednesday's meeting with the Brumbies in Canberra was when Farrell would roll out the majority of his Test team for a final tune-up.
So it is that likely Test halfbacks Jamison Gibson-Park and Finn Russell return at the heart of a powerful, punchy-looking starting XV that includes eight Irish players.
There is still plenty of time for Farrell to change things up, of course. It is far from unforeseeable that someone could play on Saturday against the AUNZ side and then feature in the first Test against the Wallabies a week later.
Lions head coach Andy Farrell. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
Injury also remains an unfortunate possibility between now and then. Yet it's undeniable that Farrell is viewing this Brumbies game as an important last chance to build more cohesion within the bulk of his first Test team.
Advertisement
The front row of Ellis Genge, Dan Sheehan, and Tadhg Furlong has a potent look to it – with Andrew Porter, Rónan Kelleher, and Will Stuart in support – while captain Maro Itoje returns in the second row alongside the explosive Joe McCarthy.
Jack Conan is the favourite to start the Tests at number eight, while blindside Ollie Chessum and openside Tom Curry get a big chance to stake their claims on either side of him.
James Lowe and Tommy Freeman were always fancied to be the Test wings, while Blair Kinghorn has been many people's favourite to start at fullback. That back three will look to combine against the Brumbies.
Ireland's Bundee Aki and Garry Ringrose make up the all-Irish midfield pairing after Scotland's Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones combined effectively in the centres on Saturday against the Waratahs. There were hopes that one from each of those nations' partnerships might team up for the Tests, but one established pairing makes sense.
The advantage appears to be with Aki and Ringrose now. If they combine well with Gibson-Park and Russell, the ball is in their court.
It would seem hasty to write off Hugo Keenan, given his sheer class for the past four years. He has been the best fullback in the Lions countries over that time but this tour has been frustrating for him with injury and illness. It surely won't be comfortable watching Kinghorn have a cut on Wednesday.
The same is true of Tadhg Beirne, who has played in the second row and at blindside flanker for the Lions in this campaign. Again, his class is beyond question and his performances over the last few years mean he arguably deserves a starting Lions spot, but there is no guarantee right now as McCarthy and Chessum state their claims.
This will be Chessum's first appearance at blindside on this tour.
'He's been very impressive,' said Farrell. 'Everyone in the second row has been really competing. This is a different option for us, like we did with Tadhg Beirne as well, so I think there's good competition there.
Ollie Chessum starts at blindside flanker. Billy Sitckland / INPHO Billy Sitckland / INPHO / INPHO
'He [Chessum] is a big man. He's obviously a fantastic lineout option, but he moves really well. For big men, sometimes it can be a little bit not as flowing, but he's a rugby player throughout, as in good with the ball in hand, he understands the game. It'll be interesting to see how he goes at six on the weekend.'
Welsh flanker Jac Morgan is another in this category, outside this matchday 23 but with one more chance to shine on Saturday against the AUNZ team.
Josh van der Flier is only on the bench for Wednesday but he is obviously still in contention for a Test start. It's intriguing that Henry Pollock, another back row, is also among the replacements as Chessums covers the second row.
It's also notable that there is no out-and-out cover at inside centre in the matchday 23, even if Ringrose has played there for Ireland in the past. Marcus Smith provides back-up at out-half and fullback, but Mack Hansen provides fullback cover and plays on the wing. A certain Owen Farrell would, of course, deliver 10/12 cover from the bench if needed in the Tests.
Head coach Farrell is adamant that everything is still up for grabs despite the Wednesday side having a Test feel to it.
'There is always going to be speculation, but it is 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,' said Farrell today in Canberra.
'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.'
One person who will be reading into this selection is Schmidt, who clearly feels that this Wednesday team will be similar to the one his Wallabies side face in the first Test.
Farrell is always capable of a surprise. Few people expected Jamie Osborne to start at fullback for Ireland last summer in South Africa. Maybe he has something up his sleeve again now.
And on the other side of the coin, Farrell believes Schmidt will have a few surprises to spring after holding things back as the Wallabies failed to deliver a 'super hot' performance against Fiji on Sunday.
'100%, he wouldn't be showing all of his hand, he will have a few tricks up his sleeve,' said Farrell.
Here's hoping for a few late twists and turns on both sides as the first Test looms.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
33 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Tipperary manager Liam Cahill driven by proving the lazy critics wrong
Liam Cahill is talking about his name and how it was sullied. How pained he was by the fallout from Tipperary's early championship exit last year. How disappointing it was to be told he was something and was doing something that he wasn't or didn't. When the results weren't forthcoming, he could understand there would be questions asked but only to a point. 'To keep proving people wrong is a key driver for me personally and it is a key driver for all the players in our dressing rooms. You don't take it personally, you never do, but it does hurt when your good name is questioned. 'It's only sport we played, and it's probably a bit dramatic referencing your name, your identity, and what you stand for. When you look in at a team that don't reflect what you really want to go after and what you prepare for, it does hurt you as a manager and leaves you with feelings of looking out the backdoor or looking up at the ceiling.' What remarks grinded his gears the most? 'I suppose the ones around that Cahill flogs his teams, his excruciating training sessions. I felt it was disingenuous. Liam Cahill doesn't make it up as he goes along. 'People commenting on stuff like that not knowing what exactly is going on behind the scenes is lazy and ill-informed. I felt, maybe not annoyed over it, but a little bit aggrieved that something so loose like that creates so much traction. 'There were other things such as Cahill plays with a sweeper; Liam Cahill never played with a sweeper on his team in his life, ever. If it materialises it is because of the opposition forcing it. 'When you hear people talking about that, and Cahill's team not coached right, I got really annoyed over that, with the effort that goes in behind the scenes with Mikey Bevans, our head coach, and the work he does with the players on the field, and loose comments come out that it looks like these players were never coached.' When Tipperary backed up a strong 2024 Division 1 run with another this year, there were predictions they were again peaking when they should be puking. 'Ye guys, not all of ye (in the media), put the narrative out that Tipp would thunder into it for the league and then they'll fall asunder. There's a trend there that you do that but we had to go after the league for little gains to build up that confidence.' The last time we met Cahill in the Horse and Jockey Hotel, he and Bevans attended a joint senior-U20 All-Ireland final media event in 2019 where Cahill admitted he was interested in the senior position but stepped back when he heard Liam Sheedy was too – 'Liam was the right man at the right time, really,' he said at the briefing. But might Cahill have been? Did he ever sense he was the right man at the wrong time? 'Are you taking on a role to be personally successful or taking on the role to genuinely improve the team regardless of the results? Are you taking it on as a hurling person, or GAA person who loves hurling? 'Yes, it's performance-driven and performance-related but when people look back on managerial terms, they judge it by what you've won. But the reality of it is at the time I came in in 2023 most people in Tipperary knew that there was a big change coming. 'But unfortunately, when you're in a county as demanding as Tipperary not everybody sees that and understands that, and expectedly so. It's not too different to Kerry from a football perspective, the demands are really high, so that brings added pressure as well.' For that reason, hearing people claim Tipperary were in 'bonus territory' reaching an All-Ireland semi-final was music to Cahill's ears. Even if the group felt an All-Ireland final was attainable, that the perception is they have exceeded expectations gives Cahill 'a sense of relief', that people were starting to understand the job of work that needed to be done and continues to be done. 'But now I think it will switch to, 'We're in a final, we're huge underdogs, but there's still a little chance there that we might just get something that will help us in our continuous progression into the next couple of years.'' And the Tipperary flock have returned to their shepherd. Cahill made the call back in January and they have answered. 'You can get a little bit of criticism for doing the likes of that, and it was a gamble on my part, but it just re-enforced the belief I had in the group of players I had that I knew when they started to portray the traits that Tipperary people want to see, that they would come. 'For me, the first round of the Munster championship in Thurles with Limerick, you could really sense it was starting to work out. We have a brilliant base of supporters. We got off the bus in Walsh Park in 2024, after a fairly comprehensive beating by Limerick six days previous, there were a couple of hundred Tipp supporters waiting as we got off the bus, and getting in behind these fellas; really genuine Tipperary hurling supporters. 'That has grown and gathered off the back of the players earning it; and I said it to the players from day one, you have to earn the Tipperary supporters' respect again, get them back.'
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Cork management learned vital lesson in heavy defeat to Limerick
Between the Limerick round-robin performance being so bad and the following game against Waterford being so soon, the Cork hurlers didn't even bother with the standard practice of a video analysis review following the events of May 18 in the Gaelic Grounds. Instead of subjecting themselves to the horror movie that was that particular video tape, Pat Ryan and his management decided to simply present the players with the tale of the tape: a graph illustrating the number of turnovers and tackles they made against Limerick in their two victories over them in 2024 in comparison to how few they made in the process of being blown out by 16 points playing them for the first time in championship in 2025. '[That defeat] really hurt us,' says Brendan Coleman who has been part of Ryan's management team since the Sarsfields man took over the county's U21s back in the autumn of 2019. 'It was an outlier, but it still hurt us. 'We had seven days to turn it around. Waterford were coming and they had nothing to lose. So we didn't forensically go through it. 'That was a great thing about Pat. We left Limerick and Pat knew what we had to do. We didn't go wide. We went quite narrow.' So, when the group reassembled in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on the Monday after the Sunday before for their customary gym session, this time they dispensed with the subsequent standard video review. 'There was a simple graph put up and it told the story in terms of turnovers. There's a number of things we look at it, such as around the puckout. And in terms of turnovers, that was down for us in that Limerick game. It was clear we weren't at it.' By 'we', Coleman meant more than the players. Ryan's management felt they had failed to get the players to the required pitch of the game. Over the course of convincingly winning the league and getting a result in their opening two championship games, the longest layoff Cork had was just a fortnight. Leading into the Limerick game they were off for three weeks. The performance indicated they hadn't managed that gap right. 'There was a sense around the management that we left the players down in terms of not navigating that three weeks properly. But it's a case of if you lose, you learn, so we learned a huge lesson in that.' The proof of that was in their All Ireland semi-final performance. After absorbing the lesson of that statistical graph shown to them on May 19, Cork upped their tackle count and performance levels to prevail over both Waterford and then, in the Munster final, Limerick, Cork's dubious reward was a four-week gap ahead of their next game. For a county that had lost their previous three All-Ireland semi-finals following a similar layoff, and a team that seemed to play its best hurling playing either week on week or every second week, it presented quite the challenge. They embraced it and overcame it. 'Again, we referenced May 18 and how bad it was. There were definite learnings in that three-week gap in terms of what we could do better. And we took them on. 'Week one after the Munster final was low key. You could see the significant effect it [the match] had on their energy levels. So we kind of came down for a week. We went back in for a gym session and some guys were released to play in club games that were on that week. 'So we had reduced numbers, and with them there was very little contact, just skills work, short and snappy, just with the aim of getting bodies right for the following week with a full panel. 'Then we went hammer and tongs for three weeks. And those three weeks were excellent. So [how the team came out against Dublin], we were expecting it.' The defeat to Limerick was an outlier in several other respects. Not only do the team usually analyse a game back; this year, the players, rather than Ryan or his selectors like Coleman, lead such reviews. Often management aren't even in the room when it happens. 'They run their own players meetings with just Tomás Manning from the stats group [in there with them]. We're not privy to all that goes on in there but they are really driving it and they're doing well out of it. 'It wouldn't be every night, just the odd night, that they'd have those analysis sessions or a players' meeting, but we give them that space which is fantastic.' Again it was an action point taken from last season to further aid as well as reflect the development of a maturing group but for Coleman it's also a reflection of both Ryan's personality and philosophy. 'He's just a great people person. First and foremost his knowledge of the game, his acumen for hurling, is so vast. But he can talk hurling, he can talk American sports, he can talk politics. And he has such a great relationship with the lads and is so selfless to allow them to grow and develop. He takes great pride in that which is a lovely trait to have. 'And all of us in the backroom, whether that's [selectors] Donal [O'Mahony], Wayne [Sherlock], Fergal [Condon] or Donal O'Rourke or myself, we're just trying to take as much work as we can off him. We're all there for the one purpose which is to try and let these fellas grow.'
The 42
5 hours ago
- The 42
Ireland U20s in danger of wooden spoon after defeat to Scotland
IRELAND U20S suffered a 22-21 loss to Scotland at the World Rugby U20 Championship this evening in Verona, Italy. The defeat means Neil Doak's side need to beat Spain on Saturday to avoid receiving the tournament's wooden spoon. A last-gasp try from hooker Jake Shearer ensured the continuation of a miserable year for Ireland U20s, who previously finished bottom of the Six Nations table. Advertisement The Scots had the better of the first half. Tries from Nairn Moncrieff and Seb Stewart put their side in command, before Henry Walker's score was converted by Sam Wisniewski to get Ireland back in the game. However, Scotland finished the opening period the stronger — Ollie Duncan's try was converted by Matthew Urwin to establish a 17-7 half-time lead. Ireland breathed a sigh of relief that the advantage was not more sizeable, as tries from Ollie Duncan and Hector Patterson were both disallowed. The Irish youngsters then threatened to mount a second-half comeback. Replacement Liam McLaughlin's try, converted by Daniel Green, cut the deficit to three points and set up an exciting finale. Ireland looked like they were going to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat late on, as Paidí Farrell's try saw them take the lead in the game for the first time, with Green adding the conversion. But Shearer's intervention in the final play of the match ensured it would be Scotland to play Georgia for ninth place.
