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The British & Irish Lions are facing renewed injury uncertainty at full-back for the first Test in Brisbane on Saturday week. Having already lost Elliot Daly there are now doubts over Blair Kinghorn’s availability for the Test series after the Scotland player limped off in the first half of the Lions’ 36-24 victory over the Brumbies.
Kinghorn, widely expected to start at 15 against the Wallabies, lasted just 25 minutes before leaving the field and the Lions are now awaiting an update further on the injury’s severity. “He got a bang on the knee,” said the Lions head coach, Andy Farrell. “He carried on for quite a bit but there was no need to keep him going.”
Farrell insisted he was not fearing the worst “at this moment in time” and said Kinghorn “was in good spirits” in the dressing room.
The Lions are now heading to Adelaide for Saturday’s game against the Invitational Australia & New Zealand XV and will want some clarity regarding the 28-year-old Kinghorn’s fitness as a matter of urgency. “It is late, we have got an early flight in the morning and I don’t what the medical plan is, but we will get on top of that,” said Farrell.
Should the tall Scot be sidelined his likely Test replacement is Hugo Keenan, who has played just one game on tour to date because of illness.
The way Kinghorn banged his fist on the turf in frustration when the injury occurred did not bode particularly well. It also potentially leaves Farrell short of specialist cover in a pivotal position. Had the unfortunate Daly been replaced last week by a back three player rather than Owen Farrell, the Lions would already have an extra full-back in Australia. Instead, in the event of Kinghorn being ruled out, Wales’s Blair Murray, Ireland’s Jamie Osborne or England’s Freddie Steward will be among the fresh names in the frame.
Farrell, meanwhile, believes there is good reason for Lions fans to keep the faith, despite another uneven performance characterised by issues around the breakdown and frequent turnovers. He also claimed his Lions side were tactically holding back “quite a bit” and it is certainly true that their policy of not competing too hard at the rucks in the warm-up games will need to change for the bigger games.
Either way, Ollie Chessum and Garry Ringrose both enhanced their prospects of making the Test starting XV and Farrell will be happy with the form of his fly-half Finn Russell and captain, Maro Itoje.
“We are in a good place in the sense that we are doing well in certain aspects of the game,” said Farrell. “But we need to improve in all areas. Winning and being able to see where those improvements are is a good place to be for the next 10 days.”
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Farrell also remains adamant that other squad members can still force their way into Test contention. “I wasn’t joking. People like to decide in their own mind my own thoughts in regards to what selection looks like but it was the truth. We are testing ourselves by trying to throw a few things in, so we know where we want to go to.”
Itoje, for his part, believes there is still time to sort out the Lions’ breakdown and restart travails. “We know we’re not the finished article, we know that we have to get better, we know that we have to improve. But I think that’s a pretty good position for us to be in.
“We just need to be a little bit more accurate. The ruck’s a hotly contested area and I’m sure they’ll feel a little bit aggrieved in the Brumbies camp about some of the decisions as well. It’s rugby. The breakdown is part of one of the big contest areas of our game and it’s an area where I think they’re going for it because of the way we attack. The pressure at the breakdown [in Australia] is no surprise to us, but first things first we need to look after our own ruck.”
