British and Irish Lions team v Argentina: When Andy Farrell will name his 23 to face Los Pumas
British and Irish Lions head coach Andy Farrell and an inset of Maro Itoje
The British and Irish Lions’ first game of the year will take place at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, with Andy Farrell’s charges taking on Argentina.
Farrell’s first matchday 23 before the side departs to Australia is likely to consist of players who did not take part in the Premiership and United Rugby Championship finals.
Lions team announcement
While the Lions squad enjoyed a training week in Portugal, Farrell was without 16 of his players due to club commitments and while 15 of joined the team on Monday after the Premiership and URC showpiece events, Blair Kinghorn is still unavailable with Toulouse reaching the Top 14 semi-finals.
England forwards Jamie George and Asher Opoku-Fordjour trained with the Lions in Portugal but the pair were released once players from Bath, Leicester Tigers and Leinster joined the squad.
However, Jack van Poortvielt was called in to cover for Jamison Gibson-Park, who missed the URC final due to a minor glute strain.
Van Poortvielt is unlikely to feature for the famous touring team on Friday evening against Los Pumas as he was drafted in purely for training purposes with Tomos Williams and Alex Mitchell set to battle it out for the starting scrum-half role.
Head coach Farrell is set to name his team to tackle Argentina for the first time in 20 years on Wednesday afternoon around 2 pm (UK time) with the Lions boss hosting a press conference at 4.30 pm.
Lions captain Maro Itoje is expected to be named in the starting XV and earn his 100th Test cap in international rugby in doing so.
While the number of Premiership and URC finalists is expected to be limited, Will Stuart looks likely to feature in some shape or form with the Lions short on tighthead prop options.
Zander Fagerson has been ruled out of the start of the tour and replaced in the squad by Finlay Bealham – who is likely to start against Los Pumas – while it’s still unclear whether Tadhg Furlong will be fit in time for Friday’s encounter.
This means that Stuart could crack the matchday 23 while the same is true for one of Dan Sheehan or Ronan Kelleher with Luke Cowan-Dickie being the only other specialist hooker in the squad. Sheehan and Kelleher both played the URC final for Leinster against the Bulls last weekend.
British and Irish Lions v Argentina
Date: Friday, June 20
Venue: Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Kick-off: 8:00pm BST, 5.00 a.m. Saturday AEST
Referee: James Doleman (NZR)
Assistant Referees: Nika Amashukeli (GRU), Andrea Piardi (FIR)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (FFR)
FPRO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)
