{"id":253606,"date":"2025-07-10T13:43:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T13:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/253606\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T13:43:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T13:43:19","slug":"owen-farrell-on-bench-with-jamie-osborne-to-cover-injured-blair-kinghorn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/253606\/","title":{"rendered":"Owen Farrell on bench with Jamie Osborne to cover injured Blair Kinghorn"},"content":{"rendered":"

The British & Irish Lions have called up Jamie Osborne as cover for the injured Blair Kinghorn as fears grow that the Scotland full back will miss the first Test against Australia.<\/p>\n

Kinghorn, 28, took a bang to his left knee eight minutes into Wednesday\u2019s 36-24 win over the Brumbies in Canberra and played on for nearly 20 minutes before leaving the field.<\/p>\n

When he took the initial blow he hit the ground in frustration. On Thursday, Kinghorn went for a scan on his knee, and afterwards the head coach, Andy Farrell, thought the damage serious enough to call up Osborne, the 23-year-old Leinster utility back. <\/p>\n

\"ACT<\/p>\n

A left knee injury could rule out Kinghorn for the full Test series<\/p>\n

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

Osborne can play across the outside backs and back three, so is a useful option for Farrell now that Elliot Daly has gone home with a broken arm and Kinghorn is struggling to make the first Test in Brisbane on July 19. If he has damaged the medial ligaments in his knee, he could miss the whole Test series against the Wallabies.<\/p>\n

Hugo Keenan is the only recognised full back in the squad, with Marcus Smith seen more as a player who can cover No15. His preferred position is fly half.<\/p>\n

Osborne will now leave Ireland\u2019s summer tour squad in Portugal, whom they are preparing to face on Saturday. He was withdrawn from the starting team having been named at outside centre, and will arrive in Brisbane on Saturday as \u201ctraining cover\u201d rather than an official member of the squad.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Thursday Farrell said that Kinghorn was \u201cnot too bad\u201d. A Lions statement said they would \u201cmanage his return to training over the coming days\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Georgia<\/p>\n

Osborne has been part of Ireland\u2019s summer tour and played in their 34-5 win against Georgia<\/p>\n

BRENDAN MORAN\/SPORTSFILE<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Owen Farrell will play his first match for the Lions on this year\u2019s tour, appearing on the bench against an Australia & New Zealand Invitational XV (AUNZ).<\/p>\n

If Farrell is to state a case for inclusion in the Test series, he will have precious little chance to do so. His father, Andy, has named him as a replacement for Saturday\u2019s match in Adelaide, the Lions\u2019 final game before the Test series begins.<\/p>\n

Farrell will wear the No23 shirt as Fin Smith starts at fly half outside Ben White, the Scotland scrum half making his first start of the tour. The likely Test half-back partnership of Jamison Gibson-Park and Finn Russell are rested, while Marcus Smith makes the bench for the second match in a row having played against the Brumbies on Wednesday. The scrum half, Alex Mitchell, will feature in his sixth consecutive game, as he is once again named on the bench.<\/p>\n

Tadhg Beirne captains the team and is one of the few who has a chance to push himself into Test contention. Henry Pollock starts at No6 with Jac Morgan at open-side flanker and Ben Earl at No8. <\/p>\n

There is a Scottish feel to the back line with Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones at centre, Duhan van der Merwe on the left wing and White at scrum half.<\/p>\n

Mack Hansen and Keenan complete the back line. Keenan will need a good game at full back as he has only played one match so far on tour, having suffered an illness which led to him pulling out of the win over the Queensland Reds last Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\"Co-captains<\/p>\n

Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and David Havili are the co-captains of a strong AUNZ side<\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

Up front Pierre Schoeman, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Will Stuart are the starting front row, with James Ryan at lock alongside Beirne. Ronan Kelleher, Andrew Porter and Finlay Bealham are the front-row options on the bench, with Scott Cummings and Josh van der Flier the other forwards. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a great position just over a week out from the first Test. The players now have another chance to put in a strong team performance and put a hand up for selection for the Test matches against the Wallabies,\u201d Andy Farrell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLes Kiss [the AUNZ coach] has assembled a strong squad with lots of international experience and we know they will bring a lot of physicality to the contest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The British & Irish Lions have called up Jamie Osborne as cover for the injured Blair Kinghorn as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-253606","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\/114829237182433003","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253606","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=253606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}