Maro Itoje will captain the British & Irish Lions for the first time in their non-cap international against Argentina in Dublin on Friday.<\/p>\n
The England skipper Itoje leads a starting XV that features Marcus Smith at full-back and will be directed by England half-backs Alex Mitchell and Fin Smith.<\/p>\n
Tadhg Furlong will be given the opportunity to prove his fitness after struggling with a calf injury that ruled him out of Leinster\u2019s United Rugby Championship final victory<\/a> over the Bulls. Furlong is included on a bench that also features hooker Ronan Kelleher, the only player to be involved against the Pumas six days after taking part in the end-of-season finals.<\/p>\n \u201cCongratulations to Maro Itoje ahead of leading out the Lions for the first time. It\u2019s a truly special moment and one that very few players ever get to experience,\u201d said head coach Andy Farrell. \u201cMaro has led the group well during our time in Portugal and then Dublin this week. This is also our first opportunity to show what the 2025 Lions are about and what we want to stand for as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n Furlong has been troubled by calf and hamstring injuries all season, forcing him to miss the 2024 autumn series and this year\u2019s Six Nations. If fit, the three-times Lions tourist will be favourite to start at tighthead prop in the Test series against the Wallabies. He has the curtain raiser to the tour of Australia to prove he is ready.<\/p>\n Duhan van der Merwe is another player looking to demonstrate his fitness before Saturday\u2019s departure to Australia, having been limited to just 11 minutes of action since the Six Nations because of ankle ligament damage.<\/p>\n The Scotland wing is part of a heavy duty three-quarter line that features Tommy Freeman and Bundee Aki and Sione Tuipulotu. As many as 14 players could make their Lions debuts in the tourists\u2019 first match on Irish soil, among them the rising star of English rugby Henry Pollock, following his selection on the bench.<\/p>\n Pollock – at 20 years old, the squad\u2019s youngest player – provides cover for starting flankers Tom Curry and Jac Morgan.<\/p>\n Much of Farrell\u2019s first-team selection as Lions head coach picked itself, given 15 of his stars were involved in the URC and Premiership finals on Saturday, effectively ruling them out against Argentina. Kelleher\u2019s participation at Croke Park was limited to 25 minutes off the bench. \u201cWe know that Argentina will challenge us up front and out wide – so Friday night will be a tough contest, but also a great occasion for all the fans,\u201d Farrell said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Julian Montoya will lead Argentina on Friday just six days after starting the Premiership final. Montoya captained Leicester in their 23-21 defeat by Bath<\/a> at Twickenham but is immediately back in action as the Pumas look to inflict defeat on Farrell\u2019s tourists in the curtain-raiser to their summer tour of Australia.<\/p>\n Bautista Bernasconi, Boris Wenger, and Simon Benitez Cruz will make their first appearances for the Pumas if they step off the bench for the non-cap international in Dublin. Saracens flanker Juan Martin Gonz\u00e1lez and Gloucester\u2019s Bath-bound full-back Santiago Carreras are among a strong Premiership contingent.<\/p>\n Argentina were also the warm-up opponents in 2005 when they held Sir Clive Woodward\u2019s Lions to a 25-25 draw in Cardiff.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week’s action reviewed<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maro Itoje will captain the British & Irish Lions for the first time in their non-cap international against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-194507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114704646447581860","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}