{"id":210865,"date":"2025-06-24T16:47:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T16:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/210865\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T16:47:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T16:47:14","slug":"now-were-touring-but-beaten-lions-already-facing-midweek-exile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/210865\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Now we\u2019re touring\u2019 \u2014 but beaten Lions already facing midweek exile"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was meant to be the trip when the British & Irish Lions beat all-comers, when they travelled Australia whipping the hapless Wallabies and their Super Rugby franchise teams. But arriving down under they are one defeat from one, and they need to make up for lost time.<\/p>\n

On Monday, they gathered in Perth\u2019s Kings Park botanical gardens \u2014 jet-lagged no doubt, but bright enough \u2014 to be welcomed to the country with didgeridoos and a smoking ceremony. \u201cNow we\u2019re touring,\u201d was the message, but still they postponed plans for a swim at Cottesloe Beach because training overran. <\/p>\n

Perhaps they are already feeling the pressure of having to deliver on the field rather than make sure their Lonely Planet guidebooks are well-thumbed. For those unfortunate Lions who were beaten by Argentina at the Aviva Stadium on Friday<\/a>, that is unlikely to be a positive development. <\/p>\n

\"British<\/p>\n

McCarthy, one of the Leinster URC winners set to play against Western Force, takes part in the welcoming ceremony at Kings Park in Perth<\/p>\n

PAUL KANE\/GETTY<\/p>\n

The head coach, Andy Farrell, has confirmed that his side for the Western Force game in Perth, which he will announce on Thursday, will be laden with Gallagher Premiership and United Rugby Championship finalists, players from Leinster, Bath and Leicester Tigers who missed the pre-tour Portugal training camp and joined late, many with hangovers. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were in Dublin last week I was coming off the back of the Leinster celebrations, and I was a bit flustered,\u201d the Leinster hooker Dan Sheehan said. \u201cI was dipping back in and out of home, trying to pack to make sure I was ready. So being here in Australia, it feels like: now we\u2019re touring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting those bits \u2014 like social, fines, tourist info committees \u2014 sorted. They\u2019re all being decided on Wednesday. We have our first big [social] meet up after the game this week. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was exciting to watch that game in Dublin on Friday. It gave you the buzz. I know it wasn\u2019t the result we wanted, but the atmosphere, the buy-in back from fans and everything, it felt like a level above what we\u2019ve experienced in the Aviva [stadium] before. I want to feel I can contribute to the jersey just as others have had their chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two Leinster and Ireland backs who may not make it are Jamison Gibson-Park, the scrum half who is nursing a gluteal strain, and Hugo Keenan, the full back who has a tight calf and has not played since May 31. Otherwise, expect a very green team \u2014 in nationality, not experience \u2014 a Leinster heavy line-up with Bath\u2019s Will Stuart and Finn Russell included alongside Ollie Chessum, of Leicester.<\/p>\n

After the Lions\u2019 lineout and breakdown wobbles in Dublin, Chessum \u2014 as a lock who can play blind-side flanker to bolster the lineout \u2014 is an interesting case. The Lions effectively chose three open-sides against Argentina in Tom Curry, Ben Earl and Jac Morgan, and Chessum, in contrast, could be well-suited as a \u201cbig six\u201d alongside Josh van der Flier at No7 and Jack Conan at No8.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Russell and Stuart, recovered from their Premiership triumph with Bath, are set to start for the Lions on Saturday<\/p>\n

GARETH IWAN JONES FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

Wherever Chessum, Russell and Stuart end up, it might be a fairly good idea to stick with the Leinster hordes, particularly given their debuts will fall as part of the Saturday side. It is unlikely that many of the team for the Western Force match will be asked to start against Queensland Reds in Brisbane next Wednesday, particularly after a five-hour flight on Sunday. The rhythm of this trip, then, may start to count against those defeated in Dublin.<\/p>\n

How hard will it be for Marcus Smith, Duhan van der Merwe, Henry Pollock, Jac Morgan and co to unstick themselves from the midweek dirt-trackers? Especially if this Saturday goes as planned, or the result is true to Lions dominance over Western Australia. <\/p>\n

After the Reds, the Lions play NSW Waratahs in Sydney on Saturday, July 5. Then there is only one weekend match \u2014 the Australia-New Zealand combined XV in Adelaide \u2014 remaining before the Tests. Already, it is high time to make a lasting impression.<\/p>\n

Western Force will have the most Wallaby-heavy line-up the Lions will face before the Test series after Joe Schmidt released five of his squad to play here: Nic White, Darcy Swain, Nick Champion de Crespigny, Dylan Pietsch and Tom Robertson. But they are the worst of the Australian Super Rugby franchises, having finished ninth out of 11 Aussie, Kiwi and Fijian teams this season. <\/p>\n

The game will not be sold out, not close really, with about 45,000 expected inside the 62,000-seater Optus Stadium. Nevertheless, that will be a record crowd for the Force, who have always been the outpost union team. They even dropped out of Super Rugby in 2017, only to be reinvited during the Covid pandemic five years ago.<\/p>\n

This is an Australian Rules state, so the rugby union team has never been that competitive or well-supported. It may not help either, that a new NRL rugby league team, the Perth Bears, will park fresh tanks on the city\u2019s lawn in 2027.<\/p>\n

The Lions\u2019 past two visits to Western Australia have been fruitful. A nine-try, 69-17 win in 2013 gave eventual Test starters including Johnny Sexton and George North their first run-out. In 2001, the Lions won by a record margin of 116-10. <\/p>\n

So the expectation here is that Saturday\u2019s Lions will put the Force to the sword. Kurtley Beale, a Wallaby from 2013, lining up against the Lions 12 years on, aged 36, spoke from the Force training base about \u201cputting in a proud performance\u201d rather than referencing actually winning the game. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a challenging opportunity for our guys but a big learning one as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

From the Lions, we should expect far neater, cleaner play. Farrell was angry at the looseness in Dublin, at the frequency of messy, dropped passes. It should help that Andrew Porter, Sheehan, Joe McCarthy, Van der Flier, Conan, James Lowe and Garry Ringrose are all set to be involved and come with ready-made links from Ireland and Leinster. <\/p>\n

\"Kurtley<\/p>\n

Beale will play for Western Force 12 years after representing the Wallabies against the Lions<\/p>\n

DAVID ROGERS\/GETTY<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re inevitably going to have a little bit of bedding in time,\u201d the Lions defence coach Simon Easterby said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had some really good time together, but we know that we\u2019re going to have to fix things really quickly and move on. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no better challenge than coming here this week after losing the game in Dublin and putting, I guess, our standards out on the pitch, which we feel we probably didn\u2019t do as much as we would have liked against Argentina.\u201d<\/p>\n

The standards Farrell and his coaches have set are sky high. The challenge now is to prove that they can match them \u2014 and to avoid any more deviations from the plan. Beale alluded to it on Tuesday morning, when a wild possum shot across his feet during his press conference. \u201cThere you go,\u201d he said. \u201cWA guys, it\u2019s full of surprises.\u201d The Lions will hope that was the last of them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This was meant to be the trip when the British & Irish Lions beat all-comers, when they travelled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-210865","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\/114739363801683712","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210865","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=210865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}