‘I have enough on my plate’: Lions won’t take the bait
Justin Chadwick |
British and Irish Lions coach Andy Farrell isn’t afraid to give his own players a bake, but the former England forward is doing his best to steer well clear of any war of words with Australian rugby.
The Lions kick off their Australian tour on Saturday night when they take on the Western Force in front of more than 40,000 fans at Perth’s Optus Stadium.
Farrell was scathing of his team in the wake of their shock 28-24 loss to Argentina in Dublin last week, saying the error-laden effort was simply unacceptable.
But he is keeping his powder dry when it comes to any external pot shots or controversies that fall outside of his inner sanctum.
This week, Lions chief executive Ben Calveley sent a stern warning to Rugby Australia that it would be breaking an agreement if it didn’t release a strong cohort of Wallabies for the various tour games.
Farrell didn’t bite when asked about the issue.
“For me, I’ve got enough on my plate making sure that we deal with ourselves, certainly at this period of the early stages of the tour,” Farrell said.
“I understand your question, but I’ll allow the powers that be who know all the answers to the what-ifs (to deal with it) and get on with it.”
And when former Wallabies captain Will Genia launched a grenade by claiming Joe Schmidt’s Australian team has “better athletes” than the Lions, Farrell was at his Zen best in taming the waters.
“You would expect Will to say that. He’s always going to back his own countrymen,” Farrell said.
“If he didn’t, that’d be a story, wouldn’t it?
“It’s going to be constant … people backing their own, and that’s how it should be.
“He knows the Australian players better than me, because he’s probably played with most of them, so he’s obviously very impressed by them.
“But I suppose he’s not been in our camp, either. So it’s very hard to judge, isn’t it, unless you’ve been in both sides.”
One thing Farrell was willing to talk up was the challenge of taking on the Force, who will boast Wallaby squad members Ben Donaldson, Tom Robertson, Darcy Swain, Nick Champion de Crespigny, Nic White and Dylan Pietsch.
“The side’s a great side,” Farrell said.
“It’s full of plenty of Australians that are in the here-and-now, and people who have ambitions to be future Australian Test players.”
Irish and Leinster hooker Dan Sheehan, who will captain the side against the Force in what will also mark his Lions debut, is also expecting a big challenge.
“I think it’s important to know where the opposition’s mindset is and how they approach a game that only comes around every 12 years, like the Western Force,” Sheehan said.
“I’m sure they’ll be 150 per cent of what they usually are, and they’ll be flying into it.
“You mightn’t have seen it in tapes of what they’re able to produce, but I’m sure that bit of extra hunger can produce some powerful things.
“They would have been eyeing this game up since they probably first stepped into that Western Force change-room …, but I don’t want them to think that they’re going to be hungrier than us.”
Farrell has named five Lions debutants in his starting XV against the Force: Sheehan, Garry Ringrose, James Lowe, Joe McCarthy and Josh van Der Flier.
Four more players are set to make their Lions debuts off the bench.
The Force will be without former Wallabies star Kurtley Beale, who injured his hamstring at training.
AAP
