Andy Farrell says the arrival of his son Owen will “inject a bit of life and experience” into the British & Irish Lions squad in Australia and is backing him to sharpen the team’s competitive edge. Farrell also said he had had no hesitation in picking the former England captain despite the fact he has not played Test rugby for 20 months and struggled for form and fitness this year.
Farrell Jr is due to fly in to join the squad on Friday as a replacement for the luckless Elliot Daly who broke a forearm in the 52-12 win against the Queensland Reds. It is a big call for a number of reasons but Farrell Sr insists it is the right one for the squad as they build towards their best-of-three Test series against the Wallabies kicking off in just over a fortnight.
Farrell Jr has not played any rugby at all in the last two months and is not a like-for-like positional swap for Daly but his father is focused on the impact he could have on a squad that is not overflowing with Lions experience. With his 112 caps for England and six Lions Test appearances, there is certainly no questioning Farrell’s big game mindset as he flies in for his fourth Lions tour.
In January last year, Farrell announced he was stepping away from Test rugby to “prioritise his and his family’s mental wellbeing” but his father suggested when the squad was announced that the door could yet reopen. Sure enough, the Lions’ prodigal son is now en route, his dad having lobbed a large rock into a previously tranquil touring pool.
Listening to Farrell Sr, it sounded very much as if that was his deliberate intention. Far from worrying about accusations of nepotism or whether the decision implied a lack of faith in his younger English 10s, Marcus Smith and Fin Smith, the management seem more concerned with upping the ante before a potentially intense series.
“We have said from minute one that the only thing we want is competition,” said Farrell Sr, stressing that Owen could yet make the Test squad. “If he didn’t have a chance then what is the point? Everybody should be competing, that is what everyone in the group would want.”
Farrell Sr also cited “the experience he brings, the support that you need for the group and how you make the room feel” among the reasons why Farrell has leapfrogged ahead of other contenders including Scotland’s Tom Jordan, Ireland’s Jamie Osborne and England’s George Ford. “He’s the right man at this moment in time for us. We see him adding to the group and injecting a bit of life and experience as far as what he can bring to the squad.”
In addition, Farrell Jr, who will turn 34 in September, is the sole player on tour who has tasted a previous Lions series victory. He is also a longtime Saracens colleague of the Lions captain, Maro Itoje, and the assistant coach, Richard Wigglesworth, and his father stressed the whole management team had been consulted. “There are other coaches in that conversation; it’s not just on me. Obviously I make the final call and I’m happy to do that, but these conversations have been going on in the background the whole time about all sorts of players and that’s the call we came to.”
NSW Waratahs v British & Irish Lions, Allianz Stadium, Saturday 5 July, 8pm AEST/11am BST
Lions Hugo Keenan; Mack Hansen, Huw Jones, Sione Tuipulotu, Blair Kinghorn; Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Pierre Schoeman, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Finlay Bealham, Tadhg Beirne (capt), James Ryan, Henry Pollock, Josh van der Flier, Ben Earl.
Replacements Dan Sheehan, Ellis Genge, Tadhg Furlong, Joe McCarthy, Scott Cummings, Jac Morgan, Ben White, Marcus Smith.
Not since Colin Cowdrey was summoned from the depths of an English winter in 1974-75 to take on Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson in an Ashes series, at the age of 41, has a tour replacement arrived with more fanfare and less recent match practice. The jury of social media will also be keen to see if Farrell is picked for the bench against the ACT Brumbies on Wednesday – his father predicted he would feature “soon enough” – almost two years on from the persistent online abuse that contributed to him stepping away from the international game.
“Look, I hope people can get past that,” said Farrell Sr. “There has been a lot of that nonsense for some time. That was in the past. We all just need to move on and embrace what the Lions is all about and what we have got coming ahead.”
In the short term, the priority is now this weekend’s looming game against the Waratahs. Tadhg Beirne will captain the Lions for the first time with Hugo Keenan and Blair Kinghorn finally making their belated debuts. There is also a 6-2 forward bench split with Ben Earl covering the centre positions should injury strike Huw Jones or Sione Tuipulotu.
