British and Irish Lions: Andy Farrell defends no Welshmen making Test XV for first time since 1896: ‘Jac Morgan as close as it gets’ | Rugby Union News

Andy Farrell defended his decision to appoint a test side of the British and Irish lions without a Welsh player for the first time since 1896, saying that Jac Morgan was “as close as you could imagine” in terms of the first XV VS Australia test.

Since the 1896 tour in South Africa, the Lions have appointed a team that did not include a Welshman: a team of 21 players for this tour was divided into 12 from Ireland, seven from England and two from Scotland.

The rear flanker Morgan is the last remaining Welshman of the current tour after the serious injury to the hamstrings of Tomos Williams of Scrum, but the captain of Wales was overlooked for Tom Curry in the starting side of Saturday and for Ben Earl on the replacement bench.

Morgan, named man of the match in the Lions 52-12 victory over Queensland Reds two weeks ago, appeared in a strong statement to start, predicting that he would do it.

“Jac Morgan was as close as you could imagine,” Farrell told Media on Thursday. “You are actually emptied for players like that.

“Josh van der Flier and Henry Pollock too, because they play the right rugby and could well be easily on this side on Saturday. It shows the right place where we are in a group.

“I guess it’s [the back-row] The very confronted part of the team that we have been talking about for some time, and rightly due to the quality we have.

“Obviously, we think it is the right balance for the first test [a back-row of Curry, Tadhg Beirne and Jack Conan].

“Tadhg’s combination is the type of player it is up to its quality in the set-morceau and its versatile capacity on the ground as a [breakdown] Jackaller or a ball game n ° 6, which also completes Jack Conan.

“Tom Curry being the engine we all know that you need with regard to the rugby test.”

When asked if there was a particular consideration granted to the representation of the four nations on the side of the Lions tests, Farrell said that he and none of his coach staff discussed this as a factor.

“Honestly, with regard to selection, we cannot get involved [representing all four nations]”Said Farrell.

“You take each individual as he is in terms of who deserves to be chosen. He just occurs Jac [Morgan] was incredibly close and in great shape, so there is not much to do really. “”

Lions First Test Team in Full

British and Irish lions: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Sione Tuipulotu, 11 James Lowe, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park; 1 Ellis Genge, 2 Dan Sheehan, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 4 Maro Itoje (C), 5 Joe McCarthy, 6 Tadhg Beirne, 7 Tom Curry, 8 Jack Conan.

Substitutes: 16 Ronan Kelleher, 17 Andrew Porter, 18 Will Stuart, 19 Ollie Chessum, 20 Ben Earl, 21 Alex Mitchell, 22 Marcus Smith, 23 Bundee Aki.

Watch the first test of the Australia Lions against British and Irish on Saturday on Sky Sports The Lions & Main Event from 10 a.m. (kick -off 11 a.m.).

Visit of the British and Irish Lions in Australia on Sky Sports

Sky Sports will exclusively show the tour of the British and Irish Lions in 2025 in Australia, with the three tests against the Wallabies and seven warm -up matches to be exclusively live.

Howden Insurance – Senior Partner and Sponsor in front of the British and Irish lions shirt. Learn more here.