Warren Gatland<\/a>, with Jones believing the new man has a clean slate from which to work.<\/p>\n“It’s massive,” he said. “They came off last week and you just wanted to give them a hug.<\/p>\n
“You felt so sorry for them, they’d come so close \u2013 ‘when is this ever going to end?’ That’s the most important thing, the narrative has to change, the headlines have to change now.<\/p>\n
“The series of losses has gone, it’s a new slate for the incoming coach, whoever that may be. We’re getting closer to World Cup time, that shouldn’t cloud our decision making too much.<\/p>\n
“But the team needs a proper head coach and a coaching team around that can work together with the regions.<\/p>\n
“It will be constantly spoken about until the decision is made, and then that’s always going to drive the narrative.<\/p>\n
“For the players themselves, if they don’t know their future how can they commit to what they’re doing.<\/p>\n
“There’s no tight timescale for it, but you do expect it to happen over the next two months, you’d expect something to be announced.”<\/p>\n
Lions want whitewash – Pollock<\/p>\n
By Duncan Bech, PA Rugby Union Correspondent, Brisbane<\/p>\n
Henry Pollock has revealed the British and Irish Lions have set their sights on whitewashing the Wallabies as they target an unbeaten tour of Australia.<\/p>\n
The Lions enter the first Test bolstered by an eight-try demolition of an AUNZ Invitational XV, with Andy Farrell scheduled to name his team for the Brisbane opener on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Farrell\u2019s tourists are strong favourites to win the series and Pollock, who is competing for a place on the bench at Suncorp Stadium, insisted they were aiming for greatness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to come here and be the best Lions team ever. We\u2019ve been talking about that loads and 3-0 is definitely on the table,\u201d Pollock said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether you\u2019re playing or not playing in the Tests, we\u2019re all just trying to strive to be the best team we can and get that 3-0 win. If that\u2019s playing or not playing, then I\u2019ll adjust and be the best team-mate I can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pollock \u2013 at 20-years-old, the youngest player in the squad \u2013 has been rooming with a veteran of four Lions expeditions in Owen Farrell, who made his first appearance of the tour off the bench against AUNZ.<\/p>\n
The England back row was just eight when Farrell\u2019s odyssey with the elite of British and Irish rugby began in Australia 12 years ago and he has been mining the veteran playmaker for advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good to get chatting to him, learning from him. He\u2019s an amazing player and an amazing person as well,\u201d Pollock said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a few conversations. He\u2019s got kids, so we talk about his kids, but I\u2019m sitting there going \u2018I\u2019m still 20\u2019!<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been great and I\u2019m learning so much from him. He\u2019s so experienced in this game and in this kind of environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still quite cool but at the same time, in this environment, we\u2019re all striving for the same thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to come here and dominate as a team and he\u2019s been amazing since he\u2019s come in. He\u2019s been on top of everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to bring him off the bench and have his experience and his words has been amazing. You can definitely see what he brings on the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lions have come through a bruising schedule of four matches in 11 days and while they remain unbeaten since arriving in Australia, the injury count is growing with Tomos Williams and Elliot Daly forced home, Garry Ringrose and Luke Cowan-Dickie ruled out of the first Test and Blair Kinghorn a major doubt for the opener.<\/p>\n
Now the schedule settles down to whole weeks spent in the Test host cities Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, enabling the squad to train properly for the first time in a fortnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to be mentally strong as well as physically strong. Your body is the reason you get picked and you have to stay fit,\u201d said Pollock, who withdrew from the side that faced the New South Wales Waratahs because of a calf injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith these short turnarounds, you learn a lot about what you can do and what you can\u2019t do in terms of gym, running and extras and making sure that on the pitch you\u2019re 100 per cent where you want to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re just trying to get as fit as you can for these games. With the short turnaround, it\u2019s just always trying to be available for the coaches and saying \u2018I\u2019m fit, I\u2019m fit\u2019. It\u2019s something different and I\u2019ve loved the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
O’Connell feels for Portugal<\/p>\n
PA Staff<\/p>\n
Ireland interim head coach Paul O\u2019Connell admitted he felt sorry for Portugal after his side\u2019s record-breaking 106-7 win in Lisbon.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell\u2019s side, without 17 players currently on British and Irish Lions tour duty, ran in 16 tries in a one-sided rout to eclipse their previous biggest win when they scored 13 tries in an 83-3 defeat of the United States in 2000.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell told Virgin Sports: \u201cI feel sorry for Portugal, but we were very clinical and took our chances.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a unique summer tour given the Lions tour is on at the same time, but I am very happy with how our squad applied themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is great to get some guys capped and scoring tries and training in an international environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Connacht pair Hugh Gavin and Shayne Bolton went over twice apiece on their debuts and there was also a brace each for club team-mate and flanker Cian Prendergast and Leinster wing Tommy O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n
With fly-half Jack Crowley landing 12 of his 15 conversion attempts \u2013 Ireland were also awarded a penalty try \u2013 the tourists also racked up 100 points for the first time.<\/p>\n
Captain Craig Casey, who went over for Ireland\u2019s ninth try early in the second half, told Virgin Sports: \u201cOur major takeaway from today is our mentality. We were very professional and played our game to get the result.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a shame the stadium wasn\u2019t full, but seeing the amount of Irish fans here was special to get the result for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ireland had 11 different try-scorers in addition to the penalty try, with centre Stuart McCloskey, forwards Thomas Clarkson and Alex Kendellen and replacements Calvin Nash, Ciaran Frawley and Ben Murphy also touching down.<\/p>\n
Ireland next face New Zealand in Chicago in a one-off Test on November 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"These are your headlines on the evening of Sunday, July 13 Wales celebrate at full time after beating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764,14260],"class_list":{"0":"post-262034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales","13":"tag-wales-rugby-team"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114846931911045823","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262034","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=262034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_JS375094835.jpg\")
Wales celebrate at full time after beating Japan (Image: Huw Evans Picture Agency Ltd)<\/p>\n