Andy Farrell calls up FOURTEENTH Leinster player ahead of Lions series opener against Wallabies

Andy Farrell simply loves Leinster Rugby. Well, their players anyway…

The British and Irish Lions head coach has called his 14th Leinster player into the squad ahead of the first Test against the Wallabies on Saturday.

Bolstering the front-row options, Farrell has elected to bring tighthead prop Tom Clarkson into the fold, who will join Jamie George in arriving with the squad in the coming days.

Tom Clarkson joins the Lions

The 25-year-old is well known to Farrell, having been given his Ireland debut by the head coach back in November and winning eight caps since. He will head to Australia from Portugal, after being a part of Ireland’s 7-106 win over their hosts yesterday, even getting on the scoresheet himself.

A regular Leinster starter due to Tadhg Furlong’s injury-hit season, Clarkson took a typical route to top-level international rugby. A Schools Senior Cup winner, a Grand Slam with the Irish U20s in 2019, and toured South Africa with Emerging Ireland back in 2022.

Speaking to the Irish Times recently, Clarkson did, however, admit that he had certain struggles in his pursuit of a professional rugby career.

“I was never the biggest, because coming out of school, I was pretty small, only 110kg or something like that. I’m 128kg (now), or something like that. There were lads (at U20s) who had played (in the French) Top 14 and the (English) Premiership. They were up in the 120kgs then, so I knew I had to be technically good.”

Opinion: Marcus Smith at a ‘crossroads’ after Lions struggles ‘exposed his flaws’

Expectations ahead of the Lions link-up

Speaking ahead of the summer tour with Ireland, Clarkson claimed: “Different things are expected of you (with Ireland). I want to put my hand up here. These are probably lesser profile games for the public, but it’s important for me that I can come in off the back of playing well for Leinster and translate it to playing well (for Ireland).”

Still talking about Ireland, but ever the more relevant for the Lions, Clarkson concluded: “You’re not just going to walk in having played well on the outside.”

His opportunity to make an impact with the Lions won’t be this weekend, but there’s certainly no reason he won’t be included in the midweek clash against the First Nations & Pasifika XV.

READ MORE: Ugo Monye praises the ‘like-for-like’ Lions replacement with a ‘brilliant rugby brain’