{"id":194575,"date":"2025-06-18T14:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T14:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/194575\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T14:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T14:13:11","slug":"bristol-bears-star-ellis-genge-to-start-for-the-british-irish-lions-in-tour-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/194575\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol Bears star Ellis Genge to start for the British & Irish Lions in tour opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

The British & Irish Lions face Argentina at the Aviva Stadium on Friday nightEllis Genge looks on during a training session for the British & Irish Lions (Photo by David Rogers\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Bristol Bears loosehead prop Ellis Genge will start for the British & Irish Lions for the first time on Friday night when they bring the curtain up on the 2025 against Argentina in Dublin.<\/p>\n

Genge, having been named in the Lions squad for the first time, is one of nine Englishmen in the starting XV for the first game with head coach Andy Farrell mainly picking players who have been preparing in Portugal while players from the finalists in the Gallagher Premiership and United Rugby Championship competed in their respective finals.<\/p>\n

Saracens and England lock Maro Itoje will captain the side for the very first time as he prepares for his third Tour while Genge is one of 14 players set to make their Lions debut against the Pumas.<\/p>\n

Lions Head Coach Farrell said: \u201cCongratulations to Maro Itoje ahead of leading out the Lions for the first time \u2013 it is a truly special moment and one that very few players ever get to experience.<\/p>\n

\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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that Argentina will challenge us up front and out wide \u2013 so Friday night will be a tough contest, but also a great occasion for all the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The game kicks off at 8pm.<\/p>\n

The British & Irish Lions v Argentina<\/strong><\/p>\n

15. Marcus Smith (Harlequins\/ England) #855<\/p>\n

14. Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints\/England)<\/p>\n

13. Sione Tuipulotu (Glasgow Warriors\/Scotland)<\/p>\n

12. Bundee Aki (Connacht Rugby\/Ireland) #837<\/p>\n

11. Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh Rugby\/Scotland) #841<\/p>\n

10. Fin Smith (Northampton Saints\/England)<\/p>\n

9. Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints\/England)<\/p>\n

1. Ellis Genge ( Bristol Bears<\/a> \/England)<\/p>\n

2. Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks\/England) #851<\/p>\n

3. Finlay Bealham (Connacht Rugby\/Ireland)<\/p>\n

4. Maro Itoje (Saracens\/England) #825 (c)<\/p>\n

5. Tadhg Beirne (Munster Rugby\/Ireland) #838<\/p>\n

6. Tom Curry (Sale Sharks\/England) #853<\/p>\n

7. Jac Morgan (Ospreys\/Wales)<\/p>\n

8. Ben Earl (Saracens\/England)<\/p>\n

Replacements:<\/strong><\/p>\n

16. Ronan Kelleher (Leinster Rugby\/Ireland)<\/p>\n

17. Pierre Schoeman (Edinburgh Rugby\/Scotland)<\/p>\n

18. Tadhg Furlong (Leinster Rugby\/Ireland) #818<\/p>\n

19. Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors\/ Scotland)<\/p>\n

20. Henry Pollock (Northampton Saints\/England)<\/p>\n

21. Tomos Williams (Gloucester Rugby\/Wales)<\/p>\n

22. Elliot Daly (Saracens\/England) #822<\/p>\n

23. Mack Hansen (Connacht Rugby\/Ireland)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The British & Irish Lions face Argentina at the Aviva Stadium on Friday nightEllis Genge looks on during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[21570,381,748,5313,393,4884,42703,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-194575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-aviva-premiership","9":"tag-bristol","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-british-and-irish-lions","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-the-rfu-championship","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114704784193358622","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194575","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=194575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}