The British and Irish Lions will face the Western Force in their first game on their tour of Australia in 2025.<\/b><\/p>\n
Andy Farrell\u2019s charges will be aiming to bounce back from a disappointing 24-28 defeat to Argentina at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin in their first game of the year.<\/p>\n
Lions team announcement<\/p>\n
The B&I Lions<\/a> first game of the tour takes place in Perth against the Australian team, who finished lowest on the Super Rugby Pacific season, with the Force<\/a> winning just four of their 14 matches, finishing in ninth position.<\/p>\n Despite their lowly finish, Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt still called upon nine players from the club when he announced his 36-man squad to prepare for the Tests against Fiji.<\/p>\n However, five of those nine players have been released for the game against the B&I likes, they are utility forward Nick Champion De Crespigny, prop Tom Robertson, lock Darcy Swain, winger Dylan Pietsch and veteran scrum-half Nic White.<\/p>\n For the match at the Optus Stadium, Lions boss Farrell<\/a> is expected to follow the same template as former head coach Warren Gatland and give much of his squad the opportunity to impress as soon as possible.<\/p>\n But there are injury concerns for him to contend with Ireland and Leinster duo of Jamison Gibson-Park and Hugo Keenan.<\/p>\n There was, however, some positive news with no injuries sustained in the defeat to Los Pumas in Dublin, while Scotland midfielder Huw Jones trained fully with the squad before the clash against Argentina.<\/p>\n This opens the door for Jones to feature in the matchday squad with Farrell set to unveil his first team on Thursday afternoon in Perth.<\/p>\n The head coach will host a press conference at 4:30 pm (local time \u2013 Thursday, 9:30 am UK), two hours after naming his team (7:30am UK).<\/p>\n Farrell will be hoping that his charges can inflict another heavy defeat on the Force as they did 12 years ago when the side thrashed the Perth-based outfit 69-17 in front of 35,000 supporters in their opening tour match in 2013.<\/p>\n Western Force v British and Irish Lions: TV channel, live stream and kick off time<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n