On a day in Sydney dominated by coach Andy Farrell calling up his son, Owen, as replacement for the injured Elliot Daly, Irishman Tadhg Beirne was named as captain of the British and Irish Lions team to play the Waratahs in Sydney on Saturday.
In a team showing 14 changes from the one that saw off the Queensland Reds in Brisbane, Hugo Keenan will make his first appearance at full-back with wing Blair Kinghorn also making his Lions debut.
Huw Jones, the only player going back-to-back from Brisbane, starts alongside his Scotland midfield partner Sione Tuipulotu for the first time on tour. The Northampton half-backs, Fin Smith and Alex Mitchell, take over from Finn Russell and Jamison Gibson-Park. Henry Pollock is back in the line-up at blindside.
The Lions packed up and moved on from Brisbane to Sydney where the news about Farrell’s call-up began to emerge. Farrell, a fly-half-cum-inside centre, replaced the deeply unfortunate Daly, a wing-cum-full-back-cum-outside centre.
It is a hugely controversial call by his father and his fellow coaches given he isn’t exactly a like-for-like switch.
Farrell, 33, has recently left Racing and returned to Saracens after an unhappy spell in France. He hasn’t played any rugby since getting concussed in a game against Lyon on 4 May. He only lasted 18 minutes that day, and hasn’t played since.
An undoubtedly great player in his day, Farrell hasn’t played Test rugby since England’s bronze medal game against Argentina at the World Cup in October 2023, a whopping 615 days ago. At the time he said he was taking the decision to stand back from the Test arena in order to focus on his and his family’s mental well-being.
British and Irish Lions: Keenan, Hansen, Jones, Tuipulotu, Kinghorn, Smith, Mitchell; Schoeman, Cowan-Dickie, Bealham, Beirne, Ryan, Pollock, Van der Flier, Earl
Replacements: Sheehan, Genge, Furlong, McCarthy, Cummings. Morgan, White, M Smith
