The Lions defeated the NSW Waratahs 21-10 in the third game of the tour where individually certain players stepped up but collectively Andy Farrell will know he will have to see improvements in the Brumbies game next Wednesday before the Australia & New Zealand Invitational side next Saturday.

The Waratahs like the other sides the Lions have faced in recent weeks attacked the Lions at the breakdown and while the scrum didn’t work out well for them and the line out faltered they will be pleased they stuck in the fight and made in difficult for the Lions for 80 minutes.

Alex Mitchell and Fin Smith gelled well at half back and although they didn’t get the ball out wide in the opening half certainly in the second half that changed when Tuipulotu and Ben Earl gave them a platform to set up attacks from.

Huw Jones and Tuipulotu will have given Farrell plenty to think of as they worked beautifully through the game and will defiantly have set up the Irish pairing of Aki and Ringrose who will more than likely link up next Wednesday in Canberra.

With Owen Farrell now on tour he may also see game time in the centre and the interesting thing will be if that happens who will be his partner in the 13 shirt. All 4 centres have started the tour well and are all still showing well in terms of Test selection for July 19^th vs Australia.

The set piece was far better today than in the first few games as was the defence and that will have certainly pleased Simon Easterby and the other coaches. Scott Cummings and Ben Earl were the stand out performers up front giving the Lions front foot ball as well as Cummings work at line out time that allowed others to get into the game.

He was also strong in defence and as I mentioned that particular aspect of the game will have pleased Farrell. It is slowly coming together for the Lions but they will also want to take more steps forward next week.

The scrum and set piece improvements have been needed as they didn’t work well in the opening games and it is defiantly about all the small wins in terms of performance and the hope would now be that those aspects of the game plan will begin to come together quicker for the squad.

Tadgh Furlong is slowly beginning to look back to his old self and that will be a huge positive, himself, Genge and Sheehan got a big 30 minutes today and that will do no harm in terms of cohesion for a few week’s time if Andy Farrell goes with that combination in the front row or mixes and matches.

The team selection over the next 2 games will be interesting to watch as Farrell may start to give combinations more time to gel and work on things together with the first Test now only 2 weeks away.

Amazing how quick this tour is moving along but that is modern life as well as sport I suppose. Looking to what will have pleased Farrell, he will be delighted to have seen the set piece working well and the line out and restart beginning iron out the crinkles of the previous weeks.

I will now select my 23 to play the Brumbies next Wednesday at 11am :

15 Blair Kinghorn

14 Duhan Van Der Merwe

13 Garry Ringrose

12 Bundee Aki

11 James Lowe

10 Marcus Smith

9 Ben White

8 Henry Pollock

7 Jac Morgan

6 Tom Curry

5 Ollie Chessum

4 Joe Mc Carthy

3 Will Stuart

2 Ronan Kelleher

1 Andrew Porter

–

16 Luke Cowan Dickie

17 Pierre Schoeman

18 Finlay Bealham

19 James Ryan

20 Scott Cummings

21 Jamison Gibson Park

22 Finn Russell

23 Owen Farrell

The Lions second game on Australian soil has ended in the Lions winning 52-12 and while a number of aspects of the performance will concern Andy Farrell namely the set piece, restart and line out. John Fogarty, Simon Easterby and Farrell will have to work on things on the training pitch to try an iron out the issues that have caused the Lions problems in the first couple of games in Australia.

From a game perspective, the likes of Aki, Jac Morgan, Gibson Park and Finn Russell can be pleased with their efforts on tour so far. Other aspects of the game plan are coming together for the Lions and that will please the coaches.

The final pass didn’t stick in the opening half but as the second “40” moved along those missed opportunities in the opening half started to stick and that will please all involved that what is being worked on is coming together and partnerships are also being formed and worked on for down the road.

The Lions led 21-12 at half time after tries from Tommy Freeman, Andrew Porter and Duhan Van Der Merwe. Van Der Merwe will know he will need to sharpen up in defence as he was caught cold twice, once he manged to rescue the situation but the second time saw centre Josh Flook get in for one of the two tries the Reds scored.

While the score line like last Saturday suggests a comfortable shift, the opening half was filled with small moments like issues in particular at the line out and restart that will really need to be worked on when they play the NSW Waratahs.

In terms of combinations, the likes of Gibson Park, Russell are building nicely and before he exited injured Elliott Daly put in another strong showing at 15 coming in for Hugo Keenan who was ruled out through illness.

Blair Kinghorn will see game time on Saturday either at 15 or on the wing which will give the Lions more scope in terms of combinations through selection.

Marcus Smith and Fin Smith will share the 10 jersey over the next few games and that will hopefully show more options available to Farrell as 10 as an alternative to Russell should anything happen to him.

Jac Morgan showed his quality on both sides of the ball today as did Conan and Tom Curry all three really standing out when required at key points. James Ryan can be pleased with his 30 minutes on debut.

The Reds certainly caused the Lions defence trouble with Hunter Paisami showing Joe Schmidt that he is a live option come test time in the gold jersey. Les Kiss will be happy with the effort from his charges as he leaves the Reds to take the Australia job when Joe Schmidt steps down.

As with the Lions, Australia will face Fiji on Sunday in the only game in the build up to the 3 game series. Training and in house games will be crucial as well as the release of certain players to the provincial sides for the games in the lead up to the series.

It is 2 from 2 on Aussie soil but Andy Farrell will know his men will need to step it up again on Saturday, the games will begin to now come thick and fast and as important as results it will be interesting to see how certain combinations continue to develop….

The Lions reacted to last week’s loss against Argentina by seeing Western Force off winning 54-7. The Lions will be pleased in particular with the second half after giving up a number of penalties that resulted in Henry Pollock seeing yellow on the stroke of half time.

The scrum was under pressure in that opening 40 and will be looked at by John Fogarty and his colleagues. Discipline was an issue and given the way that Ben O Keeffe set the tone in terms of the way he was looking at the break down and the offside line. It will certainly be something that the Lions will be looking at heading to play the Reds on Wednesday morning 11am kick off.

They scored a well created early try that certainly came from the Irish play book and was created by Finn Russell with Dan Sheehan and James Lowe providing the width and finishing power.

Tomos Williams will be sorely missed if his injury is serious enough to rule him out of part or all of the tour. He played with tempo and looked at home alongside Finn Russell. The forwards will need to learn quickly how certain aspects will be refereed within each game, Pollock and Beirne were both caught out for leaving a hand in for a second or two longer than necessary and will need to learn quickly if they are not to fall foul of it again.

The re start is another area of concern but given the quality of player in the squad you have to feel that the players will see that themselves and look to sort it out asap. The replacements in particular up front came on and made a real impact when asked to do so by Farrell and his coaches.

Already, the likes of Elliott Daly, Russell, Lowe and Hansen look to have that telepathy that will only improve as the tour goes on. Tuipulotu and Ringrose dovetailed well in attack but will need to iron out a few rough edges in defence. There were too many missed tackles that will have concerned Simon Easterby and Farrell.

The Lions look to be employing the Irish defensive system at the moment and will hopefully add layers to it as the weeks go on heading for Test 1 on July 19^th.  The Force will be happy with their opening 40 where they pushed the envelope on a few occasions and pushed the Lions into making a few errors that they only unfortunately managed to capitalise on once in the game despite having more possession and territory in the first half.

For a first outing in Australia, the Lions will be pleased they manged to score as many tries as they did and got a good work out at scrum time as well as being tested in the line out. Dan Sheehan can look back as his Lions debut fondly, a try and a win to mark it as well as solid if not spectacular work in the scrum.

The impact off the bench will have pleased Farrell. Interesting to see when it comes to team selection for the Reds game who will sit it out and who will be asked to back up from today. Tadgh Beirne will be rested now having played last week and this week. Ollie Chessum and Itoje could be picked together with Cowen Dickie starting at hooker for the Reds game just to see does that combination work as well as others have done in the first two games.

Andy Farrell will be pleased to have won on Australian soil in game 1 but will know they will need to shape up in defence and the work at set piece will need to go from strength to strength….

I will now select my 23 to play the Reds next Wednesday at 11am, a number of these guys may still be ruled out with knocks…

15 Marcus Smith

14 Duhan Van Der Merwe

13 Huw Jones

12 Bundee Aki

11 Tommy Freeman

10 Fin Smith

9 Jamison Gibson Park

8 Ben Earl

7 Tom Curry

6 Jac Morgan

5 Ollie Chessum

4 Maro Itoje

3 Will Stuart

2 Luke Cowen Dickie

1 Ellis Genge

–

16 Dan Sheehan

17 Pierre Schoeman

18 Finlay Bealham

19 James Ryan

20 Jack Conan

21 Alex Mitchell

22 Elliott Daly

23 Hugo Keenan

Here is my XV to face Western Force in the opening game on Australian soil next Saturday with an 11am kick off. There is some controversy over the release of players to their club sides in the games leading into the Test Series.

Australia will only play Fiji in the lead up into the series and Joe Schmidt has made it clear he will keep a core of around 25 players within his training group for the Fiji game and the Lions have said this has broken a pre tour agreement that players would be released back to play with their provincial sides or even the Australian/New Zealand Invitational side that will take the Lions on later in the tour.

Joe Schmidt has made it clear he will not release many players as it would affect his build up for that first test. He certainly won’t care about how this affects the Lions as all he will be worried about is how his Australian side shapes up in the 3 Tests.

Australia have assembled a good solid squad and will hope that they can spring a surprise or two come Test time and make sure that many commentators predictions of a white wash in favour of the Lions will not come to pass.

Anyone that has watched Australia over the last year will know that Mr Schmidt has been getting a good tune out of his players and the performances in Super Rugby Pacific of the Australian sides bodes well for the Series.

The Lions lost out to Argentina in Dublin last weekend and that loss has straight away focused the minds for every member of the Lions squad as well as those in the backroom team.

Andy Farrell has come out and said that performance was not good enough and won’t do when Australia come knocking… It’s up to the squad now to put in a big shift on Saturday and get the tour off on the right foot.

Here is the 23 I would select to play on Saturday :

15 Elliott Daly

14 Mack Hansen

13 Huw Jones

12 Sione Tuipulotu

11 James Lowe

10 Finn Russell

9 Tomos Williams

8 Jack Conan

7 Henry Pollock

6 Ben Earl

5 Ollie Chessum

4 Joe Mc Carthy

3 Will Stuart

2 Dan Sheehan

1 Andrew Porter

–

16 Luke Cowen Dickie

17 Ellis Genge

18 Tadgh Furlong

19 Josh Van Der Flier

20 James Ryan

21 Scott Cummings

22 Garry Ringrose

23 Bundee Aki

The British and Irish Lions tour kicked off last night in Dublin with a non-capped game against Argentina that saw Argentina win 28-24. The Lions played Argentina 20 years on from a game in Cardiff that ended 25 all in 2005.

That tour was led by Clive Woodward and won’t be well remembered by many. The loss last night has defiantly given the Lions coaches plenty to work through as they head for Australia. Defence, line outs and ball handling in and out of contact will be foremost in the minds as several times last night in attacking positions as well as open play was a big issue.

For the most part, last night’s 23 has been in camp for two weeks and they will be annoyed with some of the work in defence and missing out on one or two scoring opportunities. From an Argentina perspective they will be delighted with their work in attack from turnovers in particular where they manged to expose the Lions a few times out wide where Duhan Van Der Merwe and Marcus Smith missed key tackles.

The occasion in Dublin last night was fantastic and the atmosphere was very good from the start of the game through to minute 80.

Many times, we have heard that the Lions haven’t been tested for large periods of previous tours but that certainly wasn’t the case last night. They have seen the standard that will be required to beat Australia on home soil over the next 6 weeks.

The Lions will play Western Force next Saturday in game 1 and they will make a few changes to the 23. For the first time in a while by the second game of a tour all bar one of the squad namely Blair Kinghorn will have seen game time either from the off or from the bench. That should help cohesion as the weeks go by and the three games vs Australia come into view…

The Lions will review and acclimatise over the coming days while preparing for the game next week. Farrell and his coaches know that the pressure will increase in particular after the defeat in Dublin.

Some of the attacking play that did stick for The Lions was good and will have pleased Andrew Goodman who is the backs coach alongside Richard Wigglesworth and Jonathan Sexton who will have their hand prints all over the work in attack over the next few weeks.

Let’s hope its evolution in attacking terms because the one team you need to have a clear attack plan against would be Australia who are slowly beginning to kick into gear after beating England last November as well as running Ireland very close in Dublin.

Joe Schmidt will know the Lions coaches very well as he gave many of them a start within the Irish set up during his 6 years as head coach. Himself, Les Kiss and Laurie Fisher will be planning to push the Lions all the way during the upcoming series.

The tour kicks off on Australian soil next Saturday with an 11am kick off against Western Force. All the best to all the players and coaches……

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

–

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

Leinster were yesterday crowned the 2025 URC champions after a comprehensive 32-7 win over The Bulls in Croke Park. It was a very composed performance, probably the best performance of the year that saw them only beaten 3 times over the season, twice in the URC and once in the Champions Cup.

It was the final appearance for a number of players with Cian Healy retiring, Ross Byrne moving onto to pastures new and Jordie Barrett ending his 6 month stint with a winners medal. He has also indicated that he may be back post the 2027 World Cup, watch this space may be the saying to sum that up…

Leinster have been a perennial play-off team since 2021 making a few finals in that time and yesterday they crossed the winning threshold in spectacular fashion and were crowned deserved champions of the URC.

The Bulls will look at another final loss and will really question their whole approach as they were well beaten and Jake White will wonder what it will take to get his side over the line.

He was in reflective mood post-match and lamented the strength in depth of the Leinster 23 that had RG Snyman ex Bulls man and Jordie Barrett in it and he did not even include the Irish internationals not involved due to injury.

We are back on that merry go round of the Leinster strength in depth and the perceived lack of quality that Jake White felt he didn’t have as he said they were facing “Ireland” in blue jerseys.

Someone would really want to remind Mr White that he had Johan Goosen, Willie Le Roux and Canan Moodie to name 3 springboks he had in his squad for yesterday’s game so it is defiantly a one eyed approach to the manner of the defeat.

They were out played and that is for the second final in a row so Jake White might just need to look at his own preparations before crowing about the fact his team supposedly faced “Ireland” in the final. They had home advantage last season vs Glasgow but were well beaten on that day and he didn’t mention he faced “Scotland” after that loss on home soil.

They seemed to be very leggy as well as being out played by Leinster after they had taken an early lead that they never added to. Leo Cullen and his coaches will be pleased that the work of the season has ended with a trophy as one gets the feeling had The Bulls won yesterday, the calls for Leo Cullen to go may have grown louder.

As it is, Leinster will go into the summer break as the 2025 URC winners and they can come back for pre-season with a renewed focus for next season.

They will have a number of players stepping up from the academy to supplement the rest of the current squad and like last December they will welcome Reiko Ioane on a similar deal to the one Jordie Barrett has just left. He will join for his 6 month sabbatical and will hope to have the type of impact his fellow New Zealand team mate had in his short spell in Blue.

Ryan Baird in particular stood out for Leinster as did Thomas Clarkson and a number of other players. Jack Conan is timing his run perfectly as the British and Irish Lions come to town to play Argentina next Friday night and then head to Australia for the 2025 tour.

He was the starting number 8 in the Covid tour of 2021 in South Africa and will hope he can replicate that form as well as the good strong form of recent months in the 6 shirt and more recently in the 8 shirt after the unfortunate injury to Caelan Doris.

Leinster are the 2025 URC champions and are deserved winners after such a strong campaign and while they will have regrets about certain games on the whole the season has to be seen as a success…..

The URC Grand Final will take place on Saturday at 5pm in Croke Park. Leinster will face South African side The Bulls in the final at GAA HQ. Both sides came through their respective semi-finals where Leinster beat Glasgow and the Bulls defeated the Sharks.

Leinster will feel that they can redress the balance after a number of losses in the play offs over the past few seasons since the last league crown was won in 2021. They have worked hard over the past few months to get to the league final after losing to Northampton in the Champions Cup semi-finals.

The loss of form over recent times was firmly put to bed on Saturday when beating Glasgow 37-19. They have lost some experience to injury but other players have stepped up to the plate and though the much vaunted squad depth has been seriously tested the younger players have stepped up and worked hard for the squad.

Saturday will bring another huge challenge and after the loss in March in league action to the Bulls, you can be sure Leinster will have that in the back of the mind once kick off approaches next Saturday evening. The Leinster set up has gone through a very tough and testing period losing key games but they still managed to make it back to a first URC Final in 4 years.

The Bulls will have their own hopes and aspirations this weekend. Having lost to Glasgow on home soil last season they will want to put their name on the trophy. It promises to be a good game. The Bulls will want to honour the memory of Cornel Hendricks who passed away a few weeks ago, he was a part of the Bulls team in recent seasons before ill health forced him to step away.

The venue of Croke Park has defiantly come in for criticism as the fact it is a South African side in opposition could have a major impact on the numbers that will attend as well as the fact we are reaching crunch time in the GAA season. The upper tiers will not be open as of now but that could change depending on demand.

Let’s hope the Bulls bring good traveling support with them and they can make the final a special, noisy affair. The game is between two sides that are looking to win a trophy for the first time in a while.

Leinster will feel that home advantage will help them in their quest for league honours and on the other hand, The Bulls can just look at what Munster did in 2023 by winning in South Africa as well as Glasgow turning the Bulls over on South African soil last year.

Winning away from home in the Grand Final has been done quite frequently in the past few years and The Bulls will look to that fact as inspiration to see can they turn Leinster over this weekend….

It should be a tight final but like the Champions Cup final, let’s just hope the rugby on the field is of a good standard and both sides go after each other in the hope of winning the 2025 URC title.

Leinster might be without a few men due to injury like Robbie Henshaw and Josh Van Der Flier but they are well catered for in terms of replacements with Jordie Barrett and Scott Penney filling in for them last weekend.

It will be a tight affair as you have two sides in particular Leinster who have a poor record in finals even though each defeat has been by small margins. The Bulls were beaten last year in the URC and will be as determined as Leinster to put their name on the trophy.

It certainly promises to be a fiery contest in Croker and hopefully the crowds will turn out to watch it. I’ll pin my colours to the mast and say Leinster will win a first league crown since 2021…..

Ireland will tour this summer playing Georgia and Portugal on consecutive weekend’s. First up is Georgia on July 5^th and then on the 12^th of July it is Portugal. I will select the 23 I feel best placed to take Georgia on in the opening game from the squad selected by Paul O Connell and his coaches.

15 Jimmy O Brien

14 Tommy O Brien

13 Jamie Osbourne

12 Hugh Gavin

11 Jacob Stockdale

10 Jack Crowley

9 Craig Casey

8 Gavin Coombes

7 Alex Kendellen

6 Ryan Baird

5 Tom Ahern

4 Cormac Izuchukwu

3 Thomas Clarkson

2 Gus Mc Carthy

1 Jack Boyle

–

16 Stephen Smyth

17 Michael Milne

18 Finlay Bealham

19 Darragh Murray

20 Nick Timoney

21 Ben Murphy

22 Ciaran Frawley

23 Calvin Nash

Here is the XV I would select to face Georgia in the 1^st game of the summer tour. They play Portugal in week 2 and that will open the door for the other players not selected here to make a mark…..

Connacht have today announced the news that Stuart Lancaster has signed a two year deal with them to become there new head coach. He will come on board along with Billy Millard who was announced previously.

Lancaster has recently been with Racing 92 in the Top 14 and left that job in February of this year. He had spent the previous few years as Leinster Senior Coach helping to lead them to a number of league titles and the Champions Cup win in 2018.

Lancaster will be hoping his experience in Irish rugby will help him settle in quickly to the job in Galway. The work to complete the expansion of the Dexacom Stadium will hopefully be finished by the time the new season begins in October.

Stuart Lancaster will be hoping to put his own stamp on the Connacht squad if the budget will allow him to bring in a player or two of his choosing. He has a good young squad even if they have been inconsistent in the last number of years.

The bonus of bringing him in is that he won’t need bedding in period and will know the system that is in play within Irish rugby in terms of recruitment and retention of players as well as the playing time of the Irish internationals in particular.

Lancaster has been in and around Irish rugby since 2016 when he was brought into the Leinster set up to support Leo Cullen and the rest of his coaching team as a senior coach.

Connacht will be hoping that some of the success he had in regards to help develop some young talent will help the next generation of Connacht players in the Connacht set up as well as those in the academy.

We have heard many times from some of the guys that worked with him in Leinster about those now legendary “Stu Tuesdays”. I am sure his coaching philosophy has moved on slightly since those days. You can sure though that if one of those famed sessions is called for that he will revert to them if need be.

For any player that will play under him over the next two years they will learn plenty and will become far better players for their time spent with him. He has come a long way since his time as England head coach which ended in late 2015 after a group exit in that year’s World Cup in England.

He has a big job on his hands, make no mistake about it and he won’t go into the job with his eyes closed. There is defiantly the raw material within the squad to do better than they have done in recent years since the Pro 12 win 9 years ago.

He will have a chance to access the players at his disposal once they return from well-earned time off and in some cases touring with Ireland or in the case of Bundee Aki a tour of Australia with the British and Irish Lions.

The new season can’t come quick enough for those out West with today’s news. It has been well received and now the hard work will begin once pre-season commences. Connacht will be watched more closely than before with Stuart Lancaster’s hand on the tiller, role on season 25/26…..