These are your rugby morning headlines for Sunday, July 20.Andy Farrell, the British & Irish Lions head coach(Image: David Rogers/Getty Images)

Here are your rugby morning headlines for Sunday, July 20.

Lions call up another player ahead of final warm-up

The British and Irish Lions have called up Scotland and Glasgow second-row Gregor Brown as cover ahead of their final midweek game.

The lock joins up with the squad this evening, having started for Scotland against Samoa on Friday. His Scottish team-mates Rory Sutherland and Ewan Ashman, called-up last week, will also join the squad today as it swells up to 45 players in total.

Brown is called up as the Lions monitor Joe McCarthy after he was taking off with plantar fasciitis in Brisbane.

The tourists travel to Melbourne today after last night’s victory over the Wallabies in the first Test in Brisbane, with Andy Farrell set to name his team internally for the final midweek game of the tour. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.

The Lions will take on a First Nations and Pasifika XV on Tuesday at Marvel Stadium, with Farrell likely to make sweeping changes from the team that took on Australia at Suncorp Stadium.

Wales captain Jac Morgan will likely be involved, while a number of recent call-ups – including Jamie Osborne, Tom Clarkson, Darcy Graham, Sutherland and Ashman – should all feature.

Given the reinforcements Farrell has turned to, it could be argued that this final midweek game is an inconvenience to the Lions as they prepare for the second Test at the MCG.

However, Farrell disagrees with that sentiment.

“Well, we care about the squad and nothing but the squad,” he said. “That’s how it’s been the whole time.

“We’ve never separated once. We’ve been all in everything together. We’ll enjoy this victory tonight together.

“We travel to Melbourne tomorrow. We’ll name a side internally just before dinner. Then everyone will roll in on Monday to make sure that team, in an extended captain’s run like we’ve been doing over the past four of five weeks, is (given) as good a preparation as we’ve had all tour.

“It matters to us on Tuesday night as a group.”

England’s clash with USA halted due to lightning fears

By Phil Blanche, PA

England shrugged off two lengthy delays caused by lightning in Washington DC to end their summer tour with a comprehensive 40-5 victory over the United States.

After beating Argentina 2-0 in South America, the third game of England’s tour at Audi Field kicked off an hour late due to an electrical storm in the American capital.

Play was then halted near the half-hour mark, with both sets of players spending 40 minutes in the dressing room before the action resumed.

England eventually ran out comfortable winners with six tries shared by Curtis Langdon, Luke Northmore, Cadan Murley, Jack van Poortvliet, Harry Randall and Gabriel Oghre.

George Ford added four conversions and Charlie Atkinson one in a dominant display in which Harlequins flanker Chandler Cunningham-South was outstanding.

The US had never beaten England in seven previous attempts, but began on the front foot and engineered some promising field positions.

But the Eagles were reduced to 14 by a deliberate knock-on from outside-half Chris Hilsenbeck and England took instant advantage of their extra numbers with an 11th-minute try.

Ford kicked to the corner and Langdon was the beneficiary of a driving line-out that the fly-half, winning his 102nd cap, converted.

England soon worked another opening and new boy Max Ojomoh slipped in fellow centre Northmore for a simple score with Ford again adding the extras.

Alex Dombrandt thought he had extended the lead from the back of a maul, but his effort was ruled out for obstruction and the players were then taken off the field after 29 minutes due to further lightning concerns.

When they returned, lightning – this time in the metaphorical sense – struck twice for England as full-back Jack Carpenter was denied a debut try by a Murley knock-on.

But England’s patience was rewarded in the final play of the first half as Murley spotted a gap to race over.

Van Poortvliet, showing his sound positional sense, went over straight after the restart for Ford to convert, and England were camped in the Americans’ 22 for most of the second period.

The hosts held out until Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, making his first appearance after six months out with a shoulder injury and a two-match ban for a high tackle that saw him miss the Argentina games, sliced through.

The Exeter wing showed fine awareness to send Randall over, and Ford’s final act before making way for Atkinson was to add another two points.

England turned heavily to their bench in the final quarter, but there was no easing off and Bristol hooker Oghre celebrated his first cap with a burst to the line that Atkinson added to.

The US were finally on the scoreboard in the final seconds as a well-worked ploy at the front of a line-out saw Chris Poidevin put Shilo Klein over for a consolation score.

Scarlets hooker scores twice on Test debut

Scarlets hooker Marnus van der Merwe scored twice on his Springboks debut as the world champions ran in nine tries against Georgia in Nelspruit.

As they prepare for their Rugby Championship title defence, South Africa were comprehensive 55-10 winners – even if the performance was error-strewn at times.

Hooker van der Merwe, who was the Scarlets’ supporters’ player of the season in his first campaign in Llanelli, scored twice, while fellow front-row debutant Boan Venter also got over the tryline.

Canan Moodie, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Damian Willemse, Handre Pollard and a brace from Edwill van der Merwe provided the other tries as the Springboks prepare for their opener against the Wallabies in four weeks time.