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The British & Irish Lions have touched down in Australia with the head coach, Andy Farrell, revealing there are lingering injury concerns over Jamison Gibson-Park and Hugo Keenan.
Farrell’s squad arrived in Perth after a 20-hour journey from Dublin via Doha, before their opening fixture on Australian soil against Western Force on Saturday. There is doubt over whether the Ireland duo of Gibson-Park and Keenan will be able to take part at Optus Stadium because of glute and calf problems respectively, but the Scotland centre Huw Jones has recovered from an achilles issue and is available.
“We’ll see how they pull up in midweek,” Farrell said of Gibson-Park and Keenan. “Huw Jones is good, he’s been training. He trained fully with us last week so he’s up and running.”
Farrell confirmed that the team against Western Force will mostly be made up of players from Leinster, Bath and Leicester, who joined the Lions after the United Rugby Championship and Premiership finals last Saturday. There were no fresh injuries arising from Friday’s 28-24 defeat by Argentina in Dublin, with Farrell keen not to dwell on the disappointing tour send-off.
“We’re here to build for what’s going to be a fantastic Test series. We want to play some good rugby along the way,” he said. “We’ll find out more about each other as we keep on going. Of course we’ll analyse what went on against Argentina and why, but that’s all part of the journey – to understand where we need to go next.
“It’s great to be here, this is what it’s all about. We’re here for a good time. Hopefully we can start this part of the tour off really well on Saturday.”
Meanwhile, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso has been banned for two matches following his sending off in England’s 26-24 defeat against a France XV on Saturday. A three-match ban, which will be reduced to two matches subject to completing a tackle course, will rule him out of England’s two-Test series against Argentina next month.
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Subject to the ban being reduced, Feyi-Waboso will be free to return for England’s third match against USA in Washington, but could now be cut from England coach Steve Borthwick’s final squad which will be announced on Monday. The Exeter wing, who was returning from a six-month injury lay-off, was initially shown a yellow card for a high tackle on Antoine Hastoy, but it was upgraded to a red on review. An independent disciplinary panel found that Feyi-Waboso’s actions carried “a high degree of danger” and confirmed that he had accepted the sanction.
