{"id":206294,"date":"2025-06-22T23:40:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T23:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/206294\/"},"modified":"2025-06-22T23:40:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T23:40:08","slug":"the-british-irish-lions-starting-xv-to-face-western-force-10-changes-by-andy-farrell-page-2-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/206294\/","title":{"rendered":"The British &#038; Irish Lions starting XV to face Western Force, 10 changes by Andy Farrell &#8211; Page 2 of 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>7. Finn Russell in for Fin Smith<\/strong><br \/>Fin Smith struggled to impose himself. Enter Russell \u2014 the magician Farrell needs to inject some vision, control, and attacking flair.<\/p>\n<p><strong>8. Huw Jones in for Bundee Aki<\/strong><br \/>Aki\u2019s power was evident but faded. Jones brings better distribution and defensive organisation at outside centre, linking nicely with Tuipulotu.<\/p>\n<p><strong>9. James Lowe in for Duhan van der Merwe<\/strong><br \/>Van der Merwe had a patchy outing, and Lowe\u2019s left boot and creativity could unlock the Force\u2019s defence from deep.<\/p>\n<p><strong>10. Hugo Keenan in for Marcus Smith<\/strong><br \/>Smith\u2019s shaky positioning and lack of control under the high ball cost the Lions. Keenan is calm, composed and positionally solid \u2014 exactly what the back three needs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Farrell\u2019s Updated XV to Face Western Force<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>15. Hugo Keenan<\/strong><br \/><strong>14. James Lowe<\/strong><br \/><strong>13. Huw Jones<\/strong><br \/><strong>12. Sione Tuipulotu<\/strong><br \/><strong>11. Tommy Freeman<\/strong><br \/><strong>10. Finn Russell<\/strong><br \/><strong>9. Jamison Gibson-Park<\/strong><br \/><strong>8. Jack Conan<\/strong><br \/><strong>7. Jac Morgan<\/strong><br \/><strong>6. Josh van der Flier<\/strong><br \/><strong>5. Ollie Chessum<\/strong><br \/><strong>4. Maro Itoje<\/strong><br \/><strong>3. Will Stuart<\/strong><br \/><strong>2. Dan Sheehan<\/strong><br \/><strong>1. Ellis Genge<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>EDITORS PICKS:<\/p>\n<p>Can You Name Every 2021 British &amp; Irish Lions Player?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Think you remember the 2021 Lions tour of South Africa? It\u2019s been a few years since that brutal, bruising, and controversial Test series \u2014 but true rugby heads never forget.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>42 players<\/strong>\u00a0were named in Warren Gatland\u2019s final squad<\/li>\n<li>The Lions\u00a0<strong>won the First Test 22-17<\/strong>, but the Springboks hit back to\u00a0<strong>win the series 2-1<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The decider? A gritty\u00a0<strong>19-16<\/strong>\u00a0Springbok victory that still stings for many fans<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now it\u2019s time to test your memory.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>How many of those 42 Lions can you name?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>No hints. No positions. Just rugby IQ.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>You\u2019ve got 5 minutes.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Take the quiz, scroll down, and start typing.<br \/><strong>Let\u2019s see what you\u2019re made of.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Like this:<\/p>\n<p>Like Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"sd-link-color\"\/>\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"7. Finn Russell in for Fin SmithFin Smith struggled to impose himself. Enter Russell \u2014 the magician Farrell&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-206294","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\/114729662798490919","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206294","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=206294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}