Jamison Gibson-Park, Hugo Keenan and James Ryan have all been named in the British and Irish Lions squad to face the Queensland Reds.
The Ireland trio, along with the France-based Blair Kinghorn, are the only members of Andy Farrell’s 38-man wider tour group not to have played a single minute of the opening summer matches against Argentina and the Western Force due to injury.
Gibson-Park, considered by most as the likely Test starter at scrum-half against Australia, had been dealing with a glute issue that forced him to miss Leinster’s URC Grand Final win over the Bulls, while full-back Keenan also played no part in that game due to a calf problem. Lock Ryan did line up for Leinster in Dublin, but came off injured.
However, all three will get their first Lions involvement of the summer in Wednesday’s maiden midweek match in Brisbane, with Gibson-Park taking over starting scrum-half duties from Tomos Williams, who suffered a hamstring injury while scoring his second try in Saturday’s 54-7 thrashing of the Western Force in Perth and has now been ruled out for the remainder of the tour.
Finn Russell is at 10 - the only player to retain their starting spot from the weekend - as Farrell takes a first look at what is likely to be the starting half-back pairing for the Test series against the Wallabies.
Alex Mitchell is again named as the back-up 9 with Williams’ replacement in the squad, Ben White, en route from New Zealand, where had been preparing for Scotland’s upcoming Tests against Fiji and Samoa.
Keenan replaces Elliot Daly at full-back for his Lions debut, while Ryan is on the bench as captain Maro Itoje returns to the second row in an all-English partnership with Ollie Chessum, who makes his first start after coming on in Perth.
Tommy Freeman, Bundee Aki, Duhan van der Merwe, Tom Curry and Jac Morgan are the other players who started against Argentina to come back into the first XV at Suncorp Stadium, while Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ellis Genge, Finlay Bealham, Fin Smith and Ben Earl return to the bench, where they are joined by Ryan and Garry Ringrose.
There are first starts of the summer for Scotland centre Huw Jones and the entire front row of Andrew Porter, Ronan Kelleher and Will Stuart, plus number eight Jack Conan. Kinghorn, meanwhile, will now fly out to Australia after helping Toulouse to retain their Top 14 title in a thrilling final win over Bordeaux on Saturday night.
“We know each game on this Tour will be a step up from the game before and three more players are set to make their Lions debuts on Wednesday night, so congratulations to those guys,” Farrell said.
The Reds finished fifth in the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season, denied a semi-final place by eventual champions the Crusaders.
They are coached by former London Irish boss, Ireland assistant and Ulster director of rugby Les Kiss, who will succeed Joe Schmidt as Australia coach after the 2026 season.
Kiss named his team to play the Lions on Monday, with hooker Matt Faessler and centre Hunter Paisami both starting after being released from Wallabies camp.
However, the likes of Tate McDermott, Harry Wilson and Fraser McReight all remain with the Australia squad preparing to face Fiji in Newcastle on July 6, their only warm-up match for the three-Test series against the Lions which begins in Brisbane on July 19.
British and Irish Lions XV: Keenan; Freeman, Jones, Aki, Van der Merwe; Russell, Gibson-Park; Porter, Kelleher, Stuart; Itoje (c), Chessum; Curry, Morgan, Conan
Replacements: Cowan-Dickie, Genge, Bealham, Ryan, Earl, Mitchell, F Smith, Ringrose
Queensland Reds XV: Campbell (c); Anderson, Flook, Paisami, Ryan; McLaughlin-Phillips, Thomas; Ross, Faessler, Toomaga-Allen; Canham, Salakaia-Loto; Uru, Bryant, Brial
Replacements: Nasser, Blake, Fa'agase, Smith, Blyth, Vest, Werchon, Henry
