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The Lions players have a big weekend ahead(Image: Niall Carson\/PA Wire.)<\/p>\nThe latest rugby news from Wales and beyond.The Lions players have a big weekend ahead(Image: Niall Carson\/PA Wire.)<\/p>\n
Your rugby evening headlines on Friday, July 25.<\/p>\n
Four Lions head home<\/p>\n
The Lions have confirmed four players have now left the squad and flown home to the UK.<\/p>\n
Ewan Ashman, Gregor Brown, Rory Sutherland and Darcy Graham \u2013 all late call-ups from Scotland\u2019s tour of New Zealand brought in to help with Tuesday\u2019s fixture against the First Nations and Pasifika XV \u2013 have returned home.<\/p>\n
Graham started that match, scoring a try before suffering a heartbreaking injury that left him in tears. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.<\/a><\/p>\n Some of the call-ups proved controversial, with Ashman and Brown in particular far down the pecking order but called up because of Scotland’s close proximity to the Lions after matches against Fiji and then Samoa in New Zealand.<\/p>\n Morgan gets Lions jersey from England legend<\/p>\n The Lions will stage their attempt to close out a series victory over Australia inspired by the words of Martin Johnson.<\/p>\n Johnson presented the jerseys to Wales captain Jac Morgan and the rest of the selected team as a surprise guest speaker at a special ceremony before dinner as part of the build-up to Saturday\u2019s second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.<\/p>\n The former England lock captained two Lions tours, overseeing a series triumph against South Africa in 1997 and a defeat to Australia four years later, and drew on his experience to outline what will be required against the Wallabies.<\/p>\n \u201cMartin speaks nice and calmly. It was a privilege to have him there,\u201d scrum coach John Fogarty said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe talked a bit about the Lions series they won and the Lions series they lost and the difference in both.<\/p>\n \u201cThe room was completely quiet for the whole time he spoke. There were guys just staring up at him. Maro asked him a question or two and then he handed out the jerseys.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a bit of contemplation and reflection after he talked, which is a good thing. It was a quiet room because they wanted to listen to a guy they see as an icon.\u201d<\/p>\n The Lions seized a 1-0 lead in the series by outmuscling Australia 27-19 in Brisbane last Saturday, placing them just 80 minutes away from emulating Johnson\u2019s heroes of 1997.<\/p>\n However, they are braced for a backlash from opponents who finished the opener strongly and who have been reinforced by the return of powerful forwards Will Skelton and Rob Valetini from injury.<\/p>\n \u201cMartin said it is the smallest of margins in the biggest of games. He talked about being able to get back to neutral and talking about being in the moment,\u201d Fogarty said.<\/p>\n \u201cAll that stuff is difficult when you\u2019re playing in front of 95,000 people in a stadium as iconic as the MCG.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re under pressure or applying pressure your emotions can go up and down, so being able to get back to neutral or find a way to get clarity back in your mind in the shortest of times is difficult for players.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s really important for us in this game. We are not going to get everything our own way and we know it\u2019s going to be a game of small margins. So it was good advice.\u201d<\/p>\n Chessum: We must take the series now, or regret it for years to come<\/p>\n By Duncan Bech, PA Rugby Union Correspondent, Melbourne<\/p>\n Ollie Chessum has challenged the British and Irish Lions to leave Melbourne Cricket Ground without regrets by rising to the occasion in Saturday\u2019s collision with Australia.<\/p>\n Victory in the second Test would establish an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series against the Wallabies and place them alongside the 1997 and 2013 Lions as the only successful tours in the professional era.<\/p>\n But Chessum insists Australia will be transformed from the side that was overpowered in the Brisbane opener following the return from injury of influential forwards Will Skelton and Rob Valetini.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is everything you have ever dreamt of,\u201d said Chessum, who has replaced the injured Joe McCarthy in the second row.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no better time to walk towards the challenge \u2013 you\u2019d be kicking yourself in years down the line if you didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is where \u2013 and I can\u2019t speak for everyone, although I am fairly sure I can \u2013 everyone wants to be: on the biggest stage with the chance to win a Lions series at an arena like the MCG in front of our families. There\u2019s nothing better.<\/p>\n \u201cAustralia are going to draw on every emotional aspect of this game that they can. They are 1-0 down in the series but they are at the MCG, in front of their fans, on their home soil with the series on the line.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know they\u2019re going to throw the kitchen sink at us and there\u2019s a real statement in the team they\u2019ve named as well.<\/p>\n \u201cMaro (Itoje, captain) said it to us earlier in the week \u2013 what we produced last Saturday will not be good enough this Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a whole different beast coming down the road and we\u2019ll have to front up and tackle it head on.\u201d<\/p>\n The 27-19 victory in the first Test was built on the work of flankers Tom Curry and Tadhg Beirne, who made an immediate impact at Suncorp Stadium through Curry\u2019s thunderous hit on James Slipper and Beirne forcing a breakdown penalty.<\/p>\n \u201cThey did a very good job of setting the intensity. Sat on the bench, I\u2019d been sat down for about 30 seconds when that first hit went in,\u201d Chessum said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew from then on that the tone was set for the game \u2013 for us and for them. I expect no different this week. I expect it to go up another level.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘Fortress’ Arms Park will drive Cardiff on<\/p>\n Daf Hughes wants to retain the Arms Park’s ‘fortress’-like reputation in the 2025\/2026 season.<\/p>\n Cardiff<\/a> did not lose a game in 64% of the matches played at the iconic stadium last season, and considering they missed out on the play-offs by a single point, he thinks they can use the venue to their advantage in the upcoming campaign.<\/p>\n “We\u2019ve taken a lot of confidence from last year. I think we were just a point away from the playoffs. We\u2019re building confidence in how many teams we beat at home so if we can keep making the Arms Park a fortress and build on some of those away wins I think we\u2019ll be in for a good season,” explained Hughes at the Royal Welsh Show.<\/a><\/p>\n “They\u2019re all going to be tough games, but this year I think we\u2019ve got more of an expectation to win. We\u2019ve changed it probably from last year and the year before. Previously people thought maybe we were in with a chance of winning but I think it\u2019s more expectation that we can win now.<\/p>\n “Personally I had a good year last year. Now hoping for the same again for this year, just play in as many games as I can and be as fit as I can.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest rugby news from Wales and beyond.The Lions players have a big weekend ahead(Image: Niall Carson\/PA Wire.)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[5313,13416,4151,79,16,15,14260],"class_list":{"0":"post-292604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-british-and-irish-lions","9":"tag-cardiff-rugby","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-wales-rugby-team"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114918135201289354","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292604","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=292604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}