Farrell: Portugal Trip Was Perfect To Get New Lions Group Together

The last remaining tickets are on sale from Ticketmaster.ie for the first ever Lions fixture to be held in Ireland, and it promises to be a great occasion and the perfect send-off for Andy Farrell’s Lions squad.

The 1888 Cup was first contested four years ago when the Lions beat Japan 28-10 in Edinburgh in front of a reduced crowd of 16,500 due to Covid-19 restrictions.

The curtain raiser for the 2025 tour to Australia is heading for a sell-out at the home of Irish Rugby, and head coach Farrell is looking forward to his first game in charge in such a familiar setting.

“For anyone who was able to get tickets, they’ve done extremely well because they tell me that 250,000 people applied for the tickets. Wow, that’s amazing, isn’t it?,” he told Sky Sports.

“So that just says that the hype in and around that game is where it should be. The first time that Ireland has had the honour of taking a Lions game in. It happens to be the IRFU’s 150th anniversary.

“And the opponent is a dangerous opponent that is playing unbelievable rugby, and getting better and better, and had unbelievable results over the last 18 months, two years. So it’s exactly where we want to be.”

The Lions returned to Dublin yesterday after completing a six-day training camp in Quinta do Lago, with the Irish contingent in the group well used to the warm-weather Portugal trip as a springboard into Six Nations and Autumn Nations Series campaigns.

Temperatures in the Algarve last week touched 30 degrees as 22 members of the full Lions squad, plus England’s Jamie George and Asher Opoku-Fordjour as training call-ups, were put through their paces on an immaculate pitch and in the open-air gym.

The Campus facility was the ideal setting for the new Lions coaches and players, including latest addition Finlay Bealham, to lay the early groundwork for the tour, and build some cohesion going into Friday’s clash with Argentina, the world’s fifth-ranked team.

Commenting on their time together in Portugal, Farrell agreed: “It’s a nice start. It’s perfect for us just to get away at the end of the season. Get a new group together, they bond a lot better here in the sun.

“You know when you’re trying to get organised and walking through things and trying to get going as a team, it’s a lot easier to do it on the pitch in good weather, having a look at screens on the pitch instead of being in the meeting room, etc.

“It’s nice to get away because you’re in camp in hotels that you’re normally used to going around the Six Nations, etc. It’s nice to do something different at the start. The facility here is second to none – the pitch, the gym.”

The first casualty of the Lions tour was Scotland prop Zander Fagerson, who was unfortunately ruled out with a calf injury. Connacht and Ireland’s Bealham was brought in to replace him, and was admittedly ‘over the moon’ to do so after missing out on the initial selection.

Bealham is coming off his best international season yet, having started eight of Ireland’s nine Tests since last November. He has stepped into the shoes of injured tighthead Tadhg Furlong in impressive fashion, and also played 15 times for Connacht across the season.

Obviously knowing the Canberra-born front rower very well having coached him with the national team, it was an emotional moment for both men when Farrell rang him before the first available Lions players assembled in Dublin.

“It is heartbreaking for Zander, but at the same time he’s a realist. All rugby players know that that’s the game. He will work unbelievably hard to get himself fit, and who knows what is going to happen down the track?

“Finlay got the call-up because he is in good form. He’s very good at what he does, certainly right up there in the conversation (for selection) from the very start as well.

“He would have been disappointed to not make the group, so we just know that he will a great fit for the group there going forward.

“He’s the only conversation that I was able to have because the way we did the squad announcement, by giving him a phone call and telling him that he was selected within the squad.

“It’s very unfortunate for Zander, but (with Finlay) it was one of the best phone conversations that I’ve ever had. The emotion that went through the phone actually welled me up. So it was great to be able to do that.”

The involvement of Leinster, Leicester Tigers, and Bath in their respective BKT United Rugby Championship and Gallagher Premiership finals meant that 15 players were otherwise occupied during the first Lions camp in Portugal.

Those finalists, including a dozen of Leinster’s URC title winners, will link up with the Lions in Dublin today, and then the fit and available players will participate in their first training session on Tuesday.

It is a quick switch from Leinster to Lions mode for the likes of first-time tourist Dan Sheehan, who appreciated how the Lions management cut contact as the players focused on trying to end their domestic season with silverware.

“We were left alone by the Lions, we didn’t hear a thing from them which is exactly the way we wanted it to be,” said the in-form Ireland hooker.

“We knew we needed to get a job done and focus solely on the URC, and if you look too far into the future you’ll slip up.

“We did a good job as a group, addressing it early when it (the Lions squad) was first announced, ‘say congrats and move on, we’re committing to this fully’.”

There will be some Irish representation when Argentina come to town, as Bealham, Tadhg Beirne, Bundee Aki, and Mack Hansen all trained with the Lions last week. Hansen is returning from an ankle injury and was involved in a training hit-out against Portugal.

Farrell has not ruled out calling on some of the newly-arrived players against the Pumas, depending on their availability after a run of hard-fought play-offs, and some injuries, including a glute strain for Jamison Gibson-Park which saw him miss Leinster’s win over the Vodacom Bulls.

“The nature of the Lions tour is players have got to back up three days later, whether that is starting or on the bench,” noted the Wigan man.

“Playing against Argentina on Friday night, that’s a six-day turnaround from the finals so we might need one or two. We’ll see how we go.”

He added: “As modern day coaches, we’re used to having a squad of say 35, 36, and going 15 on 15 (at training), and being able to go through all the different types of scenarios, but everyone that has been on a Lions tour knows that that’s never going to be the case.

“I mean you could be playing on a Wednesday evening and you know, we’ve trained in the past with eight or nine players and you’re trying to get players in to fill the gaps, etc. So it’s never perfect.

“To come here (to Quinta do Lago) and have a start like that is how you mean to go on, I suppose. So it’s good for us.

“To keep it small and tight (with player numbers) gives plenty of time in this camp that we’ve got here for people to have time in the saddle, and get up to speed with new systems, new way of playing, etc.

“It’s actually nice to keep it tight enough as far as that’s concerned, and we’ll see what we need to add to the squad in the coming weeks.”