Rumoured Lions XV for the first test.
- Genge - Eng
- Sheehan - Ire
- Furlong - Ire
- Itoje (c) - Eng
- McCartney - Ire
- Beirne - Ire
- Curry - Eng
- Conan - Ire
- Gibson-Park - Ire
- Russell - Sco
- Lowe - Ire
- Tuipolotu - Sco
- Jones - Sco
- Freeman - Eng
- Keenan - Ire
Bench: Chessum - Eng, Earl - Eng, Marcus Smith - Eng, Aki - Ire. And I assume four others.
No Welsh player in the Lions 23 for a Test for the first time ever. No Farrell, no Pollock, no Van Der Flier.
Looks like one of the England or Welsh players or their agent has been leaking to the press.
My guess is that the other four players on the bench are: Porter - Ire, Kelleher - Ire, Stuart - Eng and Mitchell - Eng.
@sparky said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
Rumoured Lions XV for the first test.
- Genge - Eng
- Sheehan - Ire
- Furlong - Ire
- Itoje (c) - Eng
- McCartney - Ire
- Beirne - Ire
- Curry - Eng
- Conan - Ire
- Gibson-Park - Ire
- Russell - Sco
- Lowe - Ire
- Tuipolotu - Sco
- Jones - Sco
- Freeman - Eng
- Keenan - Ire
Bench: Chessum - Eng, Earl - Eng, Marcus Smith - Eng, Aki - Ire. And I assume four others.
No Welsh player in the Lions 23 for a Test for the first time ever. No Farrell, no Pollock, no Van Der Flier.
That seems a strange selection in the back row. Curry is pretty quick, but the other two are glacial. All through the tour through Farrell has been selecting really dynamic back row combos, so this strikes me as either very odd or complete bollocks.
@mariner4life Going by his form in the AIs over here, that is a big loss.
@Catogrande It's nothing like the other back rows we have seen on this tour. But I guess all warfare is based on deception.
@sparky said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
@Catogrande It's nothing like the other back rows we have seen on this tour. But I guess all warfare is based on deception.
Indeed but that usually works best when you show your weakness and hide your strengths. Not so clever the other way around. :astonished_face:
That back row, if selected like that, is about the worst combination he could have come up with, that's impressive.
Chessum or Curry should have played 6, Morgan or Pollock should have played 7 and Earl or Conan should have played 8. Impressive to get none of those except Conan in the right position.
Beirne has been bloody awful on this tour in particular
@Dodge I couldn't agree more. I see though that the BBC are now reporting it as being as listed by @sparky but no official confirmation as yet.
With Chessum on the bench and Beirne starting, we are well covered, overloaded really, with second rows but light on proper back row cover. Maybe Farrell is shitting bricks over the line out, particularly when Kelleher comes on. He's a good player but not the best chucker in.
@Dodge said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
Beirne has been bloody awful on this tour in particular
Yep, and current form will mean nothing if he is in the starting XV. But it is the Irish Lions.
@Catogrande said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
@mariner4life Going by his form in the AIs over here, that is a big loss.
he's an incredible player, i am a huge fan of his work.
10 days later
The big lesson of this tour for the ABs is to defend more like the British and Irish and less like the Aussies.
No matter what happens on Saturday I have begun to reflect on this tour and what it means for the future of the Lions. Lots of comments in the Aussie press that the Lions and their fans / media etc had disrespected Aus by suggesting this might be the last tour. Last week's game came close to bursting that bubble but if I think about it, I'm not sure it really did.
Haskell and co are talking about using the Lions brand more in between the 4 year cycles, playing in other countries. The next tour to NZ is the last one currently contracted then its all up for grabs again. As much as it clearly raises huge funds for the hosting nation I think professionalism is gradually undermining the concept of the tour.
So lets assume we tour NZ in 4 years, what then? South Africa would likely deserve a tour and I hope they would put more effort into it than they did in 2009 - obvs last time was hard because of covid. But then Aus again? Lots of talk about the Lions touring France, or even Argentina, although the non tests would be a joke. If they toured France, does it raise as much money? Is it different enough from the 6N? As much as I would love to see Toulouse vs the Lions, would they even want to play and would their players be available? Would the weight of fans travel to France for a tour or would they fly in and out for games?
Then there's talk of building in warm up games against Fiji / Tonga or even the US, etc but i can't see how that would be anything other than a cricket score. There's also talk of a combined SANZAR Panthers side playing against the Lions - potentially across continents including Europe - but that destroys the touring context that clearly the fans who travel love so much - and defy's Jason Leonard's previous point as Chairman of the Lions, that the Lions are first and foremost a touring side to spread the game.
I suspect it will likely carry on as is given the money situation, but i would worry about the Aus tour in 12 years if the seeming drift of the Aussie public away from rugby continues