{"id":235202,"date":"2025-07-03T16:51:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T16:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/235202\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T16:51:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T16:51:15","slug":"andy-farrell-picks-henry-pollock-as-lineout-option-and-hands-trio-debuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/235202\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell picks Henry Pollock as lineout option and hands trio debuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Farrell has backed Henry Pollock to prove his prowess as a lineout forward before his first British & Irish Lions start at No6.<\/p>\n

Pollock will play at blind-side flanker against NSW Waratahs in Sydney on Saturday in his third different jersey on this tour. He came off the bench at open-side against Argentina and started at No8 against the Western Force.<\/p>\n

Farrell believes the 20-year-old Englishman is proving his versatility.<\/p>\n

\u201cHenry\u2019s a very good lineout forward. You don\u2019t underestimate him in there,\u201d Farrell, the Lions head coach, said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then in regards to the best plan for the group that we\u2019ve picked, we always come up with a lineout option or menu that\u2019s going to accommodate that. I actually thought the lineout was pretty good at the weekend, certainly how we got after their ball as well. So we need to push on in that regard though, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hugo Keenan, Blair Kinghorn and Ben White will all make their Lions debuts against the Waratahs, with the touring side captained by Tadhg Beirne of Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m delighted for Tadhg. The squad that\u2019s been picked [against Waratahs] is an exciting one. At the top of that is Tadhg Beirne as captain. He\u2019s honoured and delighted. It took him aback when I told him and that\u2019s exactly the type of reaction you want,\u201d Farrell added.<\/p>\n

\"Blair<\/p>\n

Kinghorn will start on the wing, his position for Toulouse, in his first match for the Lions<\/p>\n

DAVID GIBSON\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n

Keenan was meant to start in Brisbane against the Queensland Reds on Wednesday but fell ill, so Elliot Daly came in for him at the last minute, broke his arm<\/a>, and has now gone home. <\/p>\n

Keenan has recovered to wear the No15 jersey for the Waratahs match, with Kinghorn named on the left wing \u2014 his position for Toulouse. Kinghorn arrived from Paris having won the Top 14 final last Saturday.<\/p>\n

Pollock joins a dynamic back row alongside Ben Earl, at No8, and Josh van der Flier at open-side flanker. <\/p>\n

Ben White, an injury replacement for Tomos Williams, who was sent home after tearing his hamstring against the Western Force, makes the bench for the first time. Farrell has gone for a 6-2 split among the substitutes with Marcus Smith the only other back. <\/p>\n

\"British<\/p>\n

White, left, is set for his debut while Marcus Smith is the only other back on the bench<\/p>\n

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

Farrell said he has wanted to see how the team fire with that bench split to prepare for the Test matches against Australia. Earl may have to move to inside centre, like he did against the Reds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was obviously in our planning, we thought of doing this along the way as well,\u201d Farrell said. \u201cSo here we are, and it just so happened that Ben [Earl] got to be able to play No12 anyway. That wasn\u2019t the plan but it\u2019s always in the background, because you\u2019re always aware these things can happen. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo that was a nice little start as far as that\u2019s concerned, and obviously there are many more pieces that could happen that we might have to put together in regards to that. But yeah, it\u2019s a different way for us, but it\u2019s an exciting one. We\u2019re trying to find out more about ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the starting team Alex Mitchell and Fin Smith make up the half backs with Scottish centres Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones in midfield for the first time together. Mack Hansen completes the back three with Kinghorn and Keenan.<\/p>\n

In the forwards Pierre Schoeman lines up with Luke Cowan-Dickie and Finlay Bealham, with captain Beirne pairing at lock with James Ryan \u2014 who makes his first start. <\/p>\n

How the Waratahs line-upXV <\/b>15 Laweson Creighton, 14 Andrew Kellaway, 13 Lalakai Foketi, 12 Joey Walton, 11 Darby Lancaster, 10 Jack Bowen, 9 Teddy Wilson; 1 Tom Lambert, 2 Ethan Dobbins, 3 Taniela Tupou, 4 Fergus Lee-Warner, 5 Miles Amatosero, 6 Rob Leota, 7 Charlie Gamble, 8 Hugh Sinclair (capt).Replacements<\/b> 16 Mahe Vailanu, 17 Jack Barrett, 18 Daniel Botha, 19 Matt Philip, 20 Jamie Adamson, 21 Jack Grant, 22 Tane Edmed, 23 Henry O\u2019Donnell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell has backed Henry Pollock to prove his prowess as a lineout forward before his first British…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-235202","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\/114790341064604311","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235202","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=235202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}