The Lions have a real problem at full-back – but one man can fix it
Defeat at the Aviva Stadium brought disappointment and dejection for Andy Farrell and his British and Irish Lions, but 700 miles away another issue was simmering which has the potential to be far more damaging to Farrell's tourists further down the line than a friendly loss to Los Pumas.
It was at the first of two Top 14 semi-finals in Lyon that a Lions quandary deepened. Toulouse defeated Bayonne to book their place in next Saturday's Top 14 final in Paris – the winner of Bordeaux and Toulon await the reigning champions in the French capital – and on the left wing for the victors, playing the full 80 minutes, was the only missing piece in the Lions jigsaw.
Blair Kinghorn, the Scottish utility back – but primarily a full-back – is the only member of Farrell's squad not yet to have linked up with his home nations team-mates. Had Bayonne defeated Toulouse on Friday night then chances are that the 28-year-old would have been on a flight this weekend to Australia, having missed only the loss against Argentina.
Now, however, there is a spanner in the works: the Top 14 final kicks off at 9pm local time in Paris on Saturday, meaning the Scot will be unable to fly until Sunday at the earliest. By then, the Lions will have played their first match Down Under – against the Force in Perth on Saturday – and will be preparing for their next, against the Reds, the following Wednesday.
With Kinghorn not logistically able to arrive in Queensland until the Monday at the earliest – and that is surely the best-case scenario – it is inconceivable that the Scot faces the Reds two days later; which means that the full-back will have missed the first three matches and, frankly, will have to hurry to get up to speed for the fourth, against the Waratahs the following Saturday. That gives Kinghorn that match in Sydney plus two more, if selected, to prove his worth ahead of the Test series.
Given Toulouse's recent dominance and the depth of their glittering squad, Farrell and his coaches will have been aware of the Kinghorn conundrum from the off. Toulouse led the Top 14 by a stretch when the squad were selected and were overwhelming favourites against plucky Bayonne in Lyon on Friday.
That context also goes some way to shedding light on how highly regarded Kinghorn is with the Lions management and why there are so few France-based players in the squad (Kinghorn is the only one but there were several others on the longer, pre-selection list). That Farrell is willing to give Kinghorn so much time away is proof enough that the Lions head coach believes there is a real chance of the Scot wearing the No 15 jersey for the first Test against the Wallabies in Brisbane.
The imbroglio for Farrell is that, until that Waratahs match on July 5, his options to marshal the back field are not the most compelling: Hugo Keenan, the great Irishman who missed Leinster's United Rugby Championship final victory due to injury; Marcus Smith, a makeshift full-back who did not fully convince against Argentina; and Elliot Daly, who has started only one Test at full-back since 2020. Then there is Kinghorn, the favourite for many, valued by the coaches but in a race against time to be up to speed – and to prove he is the man for the job – ahead of a Test series.
It is not a crisis for the Lions – Keenan, a genuine contender to start the first Test, is expected to be fit soon – but the situation is far from ideal. Smith had a chance to stake his claim for a Test jersey on Friday night but he did not take it. Among some admirable attempts to unlock the Argentina defence by himself, there was some sloppy passing and some questionable decision-making.
Of course, this is not entirely the Harlequin's fault, with the Lions now following England's lead in not quite knowing how best to utilise Smith's X-factor. Smith's game-breaking ability is unquestionable but, at the minute, at Test level at least, the 26-year-old looks more a Jack of all trades rather than a master of one. I wrote earlier this year how Smith (and England) should embrace that versatility and have Smith become proficient enough at scrum-half so as to act as emergency cover – it would be a real fillip for a six-two bench split, too – and I stand by it. It is too late for the Lions to expedite such a manoeuvre; what might have been.
With Smith not looking like a Lions Test full-back on Friday, and with Keenan's niggle, Farrell will be praying that Kinghorn comes through next Saturday unscathed. A direct flight from Paris to Brisbane on a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the world's fastest manned aircraft, might not be a bad shout, either.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
22 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
THE MOUSE WHO ROARED! McLauchlan shone from Tarbolton to Dunedin... and back again
There was an added sense of poignancy that news of Ian 'Mighty Mouse' McLauchlan's sad passing should arrive just as the latest batch of British and Irish Lions were jetting off on this summer's adventure to Australia. McLauchlan, who died on Friday aged 83, was considered one of the toughest and feistiest players to ever pull on a Scotland jersey, something he did 43 times between 1969 and 1979. It was his performances for the Lions, however, that elevated the Ayrshire-born prop's reputation and brought him to wider recognition, something he did with distinction over two tours of duty. The first came in 1971 when a group that included Welsh great JPR Williams and Irish icon Willie John McBride won two games out of four and drew the final one to secure what remains the Lions' only series victory in New Zealand. McLauchlan played a pivotal role in the first Test in Dunedin, charging down an attempted All Blacks clearance to score the only try of the game. Perhaps surprisingly for a player who scored frequently in the club game, it also turned out to be the only Test try of his career. McLauchlan was back in the fold three years later when the touring party, now captained by McBride, won 21 of the 22 matches they played in South Africa and drew the last one to earn the nickname 'The Invincibles'. It was a physically bruising, often violent tour but the Lions proved too strong for their Springbok hosts as they clinched the Test series by three matches to one. McLauchlan was again pivotal, playing in every Test match just as he had done in New Zealand, making him one of just five players to be ever-present across the two victorious series. International rugby had come late to the man from the Ayrshire village of Tarbolton, not a renowned stronghold for the sport. When he made his Scotland debut a month short of his 27th birthday in an 8-3 Five Nations loss to England at Twickenham in March 1969, he became the first former pupil of Ayr Academy and ex-Jordanhill College student to be capped for his country. 'Much of that day is a haze but I remember sitting in the changing room at 2.50pm,' he wrote in his autobiography, Mighty Mouse. ''Open the doors', I thought. 'Let me get out there and at them'. I had waited all my life for that moment.' McLauchlan wasn't big for a loosehead at under 15 stone and just 5ft8 tall but what he lacked in physical stature he made up for with tenacity and determination, in the scrum especially where he would regularly give his tighthead opponent a difficult afternoon. His club performances for Jordanhill and West of Scotland brought him belatedly to the attention of the Scotland selectors — six years after his first trial — starting a decade-long period of international recognition where he'd go on to establish himself in the team before becoming captain in 1973. He would lead his country 19 times, an achievement that stood as a record until it was later surpassed by David Sole. On one of those occasions, another Calcutta Cup clash with the Auld Enemy, he captained the team despite having broken a bone in his leg against Ireland just a fortnight earlier. Although he came from a corner of the country where football, racing pigeons and whippets were the favoured pastimes, McLauchlan would become a rugby obsessive. 'I was hooked straight away,' he admitted. 'I loved the physicality, the brutality and the camaraderie of it. Before long, the game had become the be-all and end-all of my life. 'I never wanted to give up. I played every minute I could play. I used to go down to Wales mid-week and play. I'd go to Ireland at the weekends and play on the Sunday. At that time Scottish Rugby had a ban on Sunday rugby but it didn't seem to matter too much in Ireland. It was quite good. You'd play in Glasgow and get the six o'clock plane to Dublin and come back on the Sunday night.' The 1970s were not a hugely memorable period for Scottish rugby overall, with the unlikely five-way tie in 1973 the only championship Scotland celebrated throughout the decade. The feeling was, though, that it could have been even worse had McLauchlan not done his best to lift the level through both word and deed until his international retirement in 1979, again with another Test match against the All Blacks, this time at Murrayfield. He worked as a PE teacher at Broughton High School in Edinburgh, launched his own marketing firm and even had a brief spell in journalism but rugby remained in the blood, making it little surprise that he would continue to contribute to the sport later in life. He served as president of Scottish Rugby from 2010 to 2012 and remained on the board until 2019. 'I've always been involved in rugby in one way or another,' he said at the time. 'I suppose it kind of appealed to my sense of humour, the thought of being on the board. 'It's like everything else. I just wanted to do something to help rugby. It's a plain, simple fact: if you don't do anything, you don't get much from it — but if you try to do something you get a great deal of self-satisfaction and reward comes from effort.' McLauchlan would fill other rugby roles, too, chairing the British and Irish Lions Trust, becoming a director of European Professional Club Rugby, chair of the Murrayfield Injured Players Foundation and a director of the Hearts & Balls rugby charity. In 2013 he was inducted into Scottish Rugby's Hall of Fame and four years later received an OBE for services to rugby. Later in life he moved from the Corstorphine area of Edinburgh to settle on Islay where his wife Eileen, who died in 2023, hailed from. News of McLauchlan's sad passing prompted tributes from all across the rugby world, including from former team-mate — and another Lions and Scotland legend — Andy Irvine. 'He was some character and some player,' said Irvine. 'He was smaller than most props he came up against but I never saw anyone get the better of him. He was so tough, almost indestructible. What a fantastic career he had for Scotland and the Lions. It's very, very sad.' The sad news broke just as Lions head coach Andy Farrell and his players were boarding the plane to Australia ahead of their Test series against the Wallabies. They paid tribute to one of their own: 'Our thoughts are with the friends and family of former Scotland captain and Lions great Ian McLauchlan.'
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Leigh survive scare to beat Catalans and go third
Betfred Super LeagueCatalans Dragons (6) 12Tries: Pangai Junior, Makinson Goals: Makinson 2Leigh Leopards (12) 26Tries: Niu, Brand, Ofahengaue, Armstrong Goals: O'Brien 5 Joe Ofahengaue and David Armstrong scored late tries as Leigh Leopards beat Catalans Dragons 26-12 to go third in Super had come from 12-0 down to level through tries from Tevita Pangai Junior and Tommy Makinson but fell to a sixth-straight league Niu and Keanan Brand had both crossed to help give Leigh a half-time ran away with the game when Pangai Junior was sent to the sin-bin for a late tackle, but Gareth O'Brien's performance with the boot was crucial as he scored a penalty before full-time to add to his four to follow Catalans Dragons: Tomkins, Makinson, Laguerre, Darrelatour, Cotric, Keary, Rouge, Satae, Da Costa, Maria, Romano, Seguier, PartingtonInterchanges: Pangai Juniorr, Bousquet, Sironen, DezariaLeigh Leopards: Armstrong, McIntosh, Niu, Hanley, Brand, O'Brien, Lam, Ofahengaue, Ipape, Mulhern, Halton, Trout, LiuInterchanges: Tuitavake, Davis, O'Neill, McNamaraReferee: Liam Rush
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
The Lions head Down Under! Maro Itoje leads his squad to Australia... flying in the world's most luxurious suites
The Lions journey to Australia has finally begun after the players took off from Dublin on Saturday morning. Just hours after Friday night's defeat by Argentina, the squad bedded down in their luxury Qsuites on a Qatar Airways flight to Perth. The squad will stop off in Doha, before continuing their journey to the Southern Hemisphere for their opening tour match against Western Force. After a game of cards at the airport, Maro Itoje led his team on board, suited and booted, promising improvements as he plots to lead the side to victory Down Under. He was followed on board by back-row Henry Pollock who, as the youngest player in the squad, is responsible for carrying BIL the lion teddy throughout the tour. Andy Farrell is likely to rotate his side for the opening match at the Optus Stadium, where 40,000 tickets have already been sold for the curtain raiser. Title-winning players from Leinster and Bath are likely to feature, with the likes of No 10 Finn Russell all due game time. 'We land Sunday night in Perth, I imagine on Monday morning we'll have something getting us up and going again,' said Russell. 'So I think getting a schedule or a routine as soon as you get there is pretty important. 'But the guys who will be looking after that and trying to give us a plan for when we sleep on the flight, they've had it planned out for longer than we think.'
