On a day in Sydney dominated by head 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 Blair Kinghorn also making his Lions debut. Kinghorn, a natural 15, has been picked on the left wing, where he finished the season with the French title-winning Toulouse.
For the first time on tour the Lions are going with a six-two split between forwards and backs on the bench.
Ben White, the Scottish scrum-half parachuted in after Tomos Williams was forced out last weekend, will be another who will make his Lions debut in Sydney. White is a replacement.
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. Another Saint, Henry Pollock, is back in the line-up at blind-side flanker.
In downtown Sydney, the vast majority of Farrell’s team announcement press conference was taken up by questions about his son. “I’m delighted for Tadhg,” said the coach when eventually asked about the upcoming game against the Waratahs and his new captain, Beirne.
“I know there’s the sad news about Elliot and the news about Owen coming is the big one, but the squad that’s been picked (to play the Waratahs) is an exciting one. At the top of that is Tadhg as captain. He’s honoured and delighted. It took him aback when I told him and that’s exactly the type of reaction you want.”
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. If this tour was gliding along without edge or controversy then that ended on Thursday evening, Sydney-time.
“Look, I hope people can get past that,” said Farrell when asked about the negative response to him promoting his son. “There has been a lot of that nonsense for some time. That was in the past. We all just need to move and embrace what the Lions is all about and what we have got coming ahead.”
It was a plaintive cry. The news didn’t appear to go down at all well in rugbyland. 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
