{"id":261568,"date":"2025-07-13T12:30:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T12:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/261568\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T12:30:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T12:30:14","slug":"ugo-monye-praises-british-and-irish-lions-replacement-jamie-osborne-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/261568\/","title":{"rendered":"Ugo Monye praises British and Irish Lions replacement Jamie Osborne : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ugo Monye has praised Leinster and Ireland star Jamie Osborne, who joined the rest of the British and Irish Lions squad in Australia this week.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The versatile back came in as a replacement for the injured Elliot Daly ahead of the three Tests against the Wallabies.<\/p>\n

Although he\u2019s not expected to take part in the first Test in\u00a0Brisbane on Saturday, he will have time to play himself into contention when the touring side face the\u00a0First Nations & Pasifika XV\u00a0in their midweek game on July 22.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Prime Casino<\/a> ahead of the Lions match against AUNZ yesterday \u2013 the New Zealand and Australia invitational side \u2013 Monye said: \u201cIt makes perfect sense. I watched Jamie\u2019s first start for Ireland, I think it was out in South Africa last year. They won, and I thought he was brilliant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve actually tracked him across the last few years for Leinster, and his ability to play not just as a centre, but as a 15, makes him such a versatile player.<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing Jamie in feels like a like-for-like replacement for Elliot Daly<\/a>. He\u2019s someone who\u2019s very good in the air and a good counter-attacker. Obviously, he has a brilliant rugby brain on him, and he has an enormous left boot as well. It makes perfect sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Owen Farrell, the point of difference for the Lions<\/p>\n

The Lions delivered arguably their greatest performance of the tour so far when they defeated AUNZ 0-48 in their own backyard, displaying the team cohesion vital for victories at this level.<\/p>\n

\u201cTest matches are won by doing the basics at a world-class level and building on that,\u201d Monye said. \u201cWhether that\u2019s their set-piece defence, their connection in attack, or asserting a level of pressure that we\u2019re used to seeing from the British and Irish Lions when they are at their best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monye believes Owen Farrell<\/a> can be the point of difference for the Lions.<\/p>\n

\u201cA fully fit Owen Farrell can make a difference to any side. Of course, we\u2019ve seen that he\u2019s not had the season that he would have liked in Paris.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably the first time in his career that he\u2019s kept getting interrupted with injuries, most recently his concussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cA fully fit Owen Farrell, though, when he\u2019s at the peak of his powers, he can make the difference to any side. He\u2019s a four-time British and Irish Lion, he\u2019s got a wealth of experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrell arrived on the field to face AUNZ with 30 minutes left on the clock, and impressed many with his level of class and innate ability to slow down time whilst on the ball.<\/p>\n

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ROG was impressed with the returning Saracens fly-half<\/p>\n

Three-time Lions tourist and current La Rochelle head coach Ronan O\u2019Gara was very impressed with the returning Farrell, saying to Sky Sports after the match:\u00a0\u201cOne of the standouts was Owen Farrell, he added to the team because he did the simple things well.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looked like he had all the time in the world. Moving the ball quickly, he makes other players look good. That was a massive positive for the Lions, having a competitor like Farrell with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was exceptional. People underestimate his composure. So much of what happens in a Test match is about your capacity to be composed, and Farrell is a master at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The British and Irish Lions\u2019 next match will be on July 19, as they take on the Wallabies in their opening Test.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0British and Irish Lions player ratings: Owen Farrell shows his \u2018class\u2019 as several stars lay down an \u2019emphatic marker\u2019 in final hit out<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ugo Monye has praised Leinster and Ireland star Jamie Osborne, who joined the rest of the British and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[91811,5313,393,225,678,100051,4306,12,11082,4151,12070,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-261568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-british-irish-lions-tour","9":"tag-british-and-irish-lions","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-jamie-osborne","14":"tag-leinster","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-owen-farrell","17":"tag-rugby","18":"tag-saracens","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114845937161861215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261568","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=261568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}