The British and Irish Lions go into action against Argentina in Dublin 20 years on from facing them in Cardiff. In the intervening time since that game in 2005, The Lions have faced The Barbarians in Hong Kong, Twickenham and now will take on Argentina for a second time in Dublin.
It is a big fixture for Argentina as they can claim a very special scalp by defeating the Lions in the first game of the tour. The Lions will have everyone barring Blair Kinghorn in camp this week in Dublin. The players involved with Leinster, Bath and Leicester Tigers will arrive to camp today and will follow certain protocols before their involvement for Friday’s game will be decided.
Andy Farrell has stated he would like certain players to back up from playing this past weekend and be involved in some shape on Friday evening, it will be an interesting one to look for but the smart money is that any of those players will only make the bench as one gets the feeling that the guys that travelled to Portugal last week will be in pole position to get the first shot in the famous red jersey.
Here is the 23 I would select to face Argentina on Friday night at 8pm.
15 Elliott Daly
14 Mack Hansen
13 Huw Jones
12 Bundee Aki
11 Tommy Freeman
10 Fin Smith
9 Tomos Williams
8 Ben Earl
7 Jac Morgan
6 Tom Curry
5 Scott Cummings
4 Maro Itoje
3 Finlay Bealham
2 Luke Cowen Dickie
1 Ellis Genge
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16 Ronan Kelleher
17 Pierre Schoeman
18 Tadgh Furlong
19 Tadgh Beirne
20 Henry Pollock
21 Alex Mitchell
22 Marcus Smith
23 Duhan Van Der Merwe