
‘Cried like a baby didn't ya?' – Watch Andy Farrell embarrass Ireland star over reaction to Lions call-up
FINLAY Bealham may not thank him for it, but Andy Farrell revealed he "cried like a baby" upon being called up to the Lions squad.
The Connacht prop
4
Bealham might not thank the Irish rugby social team either
Credit: @IRISHRUGBY
4
He was the butt of the joke as his Lions teammates laughed at his expense
Credit: @IRISHRUGBY
4
Bealham is an Australian native like fellow tourist Mack Hansen
4
Farrell went on sabbatical from his role with Ireland in November
Now, in an access all areas clip, fans have got to see Farrell congratulate Bealham in front of the whole squad - while simultaneously teasing him for getting so emotional.
In it the Wigan native says: "A huge congratulations to Finlay on being added to the squad full-time."
He then somewhat unnecessarily adds: "Honestly, he's cried like a baby too (upon hearing)."
The Ireland head coach then prods the 33-year-old by putting it to him: "Didn't ya?!"
Read More On Irish Sport
After a pause Bealham sheepishly replies "...yeah" which prompts laughter all around the room.
Farrell's charges begin their 10-game slate
The headline item from it was that
The prop has not played since
Most read in Rugby Union
He is joined in the replacements by Rónan Kelleher, the only other Leinster player involved because they were involved in
There are still three Irish players in the starting XV with 2021 tourists Bundee Aki of Connacht and Munster's Tadhg Beirne included, along with Bealham.
Watch Donncha O'Callaghan & Tommy Bowe's hilarious skit as Lions fever ramps up before Aviva Stadium game
Aki and Bealham's provincial teammate
Farrell has not included any Bath representatives with the side involved in the Premiership final against Leicester Tigers on Saturday.
Lions captain
'Maro has led the group well during our time in Portugal and then Dublin this week. This is also our first opportunity to show what the 2025 Lions are about and what we want to stand for as a team.
'We know that Argentina will challenge us up front and out wide - so Friday night will be a tough contest, but also a great occasion for all the fans.'
After their first outing on Irish soil, the Lions will travel to Australia ahead of the three-Test series against the Wallabies.
Lions: M Smith (England), Freeman (England), Tuipulotu (Scotland), Aki (Ireland), van der Merwe (Scotland), F Smith (England), Mitchell (England), Genge (England), Cowan-Dickie (England), Bealham (Ireland), Itoje (England), Beirne (Ireland), Curry (England), Morgan (Wales), Earl (England).
Replacements: Kelleher (Ireland), Schoeman (Scotland), Furlong (Ireland), Cummings (Scotland), Pollock (England), Williams (Wales), Daly (England), Hansen (Ireland).

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Irish Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
From pints to points to prove - Jack Conan on a frenetic week in Lions camp
By early Monday morning reality had set in again for Jack Conan - one job done, another only starting. As Leinster skipper at the Aviva Stadium last Saturday, Conan lifted the URC trophy with injured club captain Caelan Doris and with Cian Healy, in his last action before retirement. Then the celebrations started. "Class," he recalled. "It was a bit weird in the changing room after, like we didn't know how to win. Lads were a bit awkward, but it was good craic. We went to the RDS for a bit which was good, and then just pottered into town, and everyone did their own thing." But Leinster's Lions had one eye on what was coming next. Monday morning, Lions camp. Andy Farrell admitted he was impressed by how fresh the Leinster and Bath players were when they joined after their respective Cup victories. Conan was fresh enough - he had a 7am appointment in Bray to pick up the family dog. "We had a great few days, it was nice, a few pints on Sunday as well early doors which was good. It was enjoyable celebrations. I was home early, so I was being wise. "The afterglow went pretty quickly on Monday morning when you had to pack up for the next eight weeks of your life, and get organised and do everything else and get into camp. The anxiety was pretty high, like first day of school going in. The lads had the time together, so you feel you're behind the 8-ball a bit, so you're on catch-up." The new arrivals had to get up to speed on the Lions' plays and calls on Monday, so that was challenging. Only one Leinster player involved last weekend - Rónan Kelleher - was picked to play against Argentina last night but Tuesday still involved a serious hit-out for the newcomers under Farrell's watch. "Soul-searching stuff, we had to run out the demons," winced Conan. "You'd love to be playing, but it is what it is. Everyone has been training away without us." Nine players not involved in the Argentina game were at the UCD Bowl yesterday morning to host a training session for 90 schoolchildren. Conan was wearing a leg brace but it won't stop him being involved in the Lions' first game on Australian soil next Saturday. The 32-year-old was on the last tour in South Africa but this promises to be a completely different experience as that took place during Covid. "Four years ago was still great, I loved it and had a great experience," Conan insisted. "You get to know the lads in such a different way because it was eight weeks of kind of solitary confinement. "You have to mix. You still have to mix now but you're getting out and about in smaller groups whereas four years ago, everyone was just kind of sitting around. "I'd love to be playing against Argentina but it is what it is. Excited to see a full stadium. The only taste we got of that was four years ago against Japan in Edinburgh and there were around 16,000 there with spaced seating, so definitely a bit different. 'You know what's expected of you when you put on the jersey and when you come into this environment. Other than that, it's more just the detail, the plays, calling structures and all that, it's different. "I can't wait to get over there. Everyone says it's just a different fanfare, a different level of excitement when you get properly on tour. But you can even see it walking around town at the moment, people in jerseys, there's a pop-up shop, so many kids outside The Shelbourne. It's special." The Lions fly Down Under this morning and Perth is the first stop for a clash with the Western Force. 'For them, it's going to be the biggest game of their careers when you're playing the club sides. The Western Force are going to be unbelievably up for it. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for those blokes. 'They might be missing a host of international stars but will be unbelievably excited so we'll have to be at our best. Every time you get an opportunity to put on this jersey it's only a very short amount of time. You've got to make the most of it and leave it in a better place. 'You've got to take those opportunities and run with it, and hopefully I'll get that opportunity next Saturday.'


Irish Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
'We let ourselves down a little' Cavan hero on opportunities missed with Kerry
With the week that's in it, it was apt that the RTE series, Hell For Leather - The Story of Gaelic Football, landed on the 1947 All-Ireland final last Monday night. It recalled how the novel idea of staging the GAA's showpiece event in New York, to mark the centenary of the worst year of the great famine, came from the Clare county convention. The motion was resisted by the GAA's top brass before it came to Congress but Clare delegate Canon Michael Hamilton spoke passionately. 'They'll never see their homeland again,' he said of the Irish that had been scattered to America, 'and are you going to deny them this bit of Ireland?' The motion passed. Kerry and Cavan qualified for the final at the Polo Grounds some months later, with Cavan scoring their greatest victory in the most unique All-Ireland final of all. 'Cavan glorious and happy in victory,' surmised Micheál O'Hehir on the highlights reel as the players celebrated. 'The greatest chapter in Irish sporting history came to an end.' The links to 1947 have invariably endured in Cavan teams since. Current full-back Killian Brady is the grand-nephew of Phil 'The Gunner' Brady, who played at midfield in 1947, for example. Cormac O'Reilly's grand-uncle was John Wilson, wing-back 78 years ago and a long-time Fianna Fáil TD who would serve as Tánaiste. O'Reilly's father, Damien, has no direct familial links, but was a key player for Cavan when they played Kerry in two landmark fixtures in 1997, 50 years on from their last Championship victory over them. The first was an All-Ireland semi-final, Cavan's first in 28 years having ended their famine in Ulster, and a game that still rankles all these years on. Cavan competed well for the most part and Fintan Cahill's first half goal gave them impetus. However, Maurice Fitzgerald's brilliance proved too much as Kerry finished strongly to win by seven points. But O'Reilly views it as an opportunity missed. Ulster teams had done well in Croke Park since 1991. Kerry hadn't won an All-Ireland in 11 years and had been well beaten by Mayo the year before. 'I just feel that we let ourselves down a little,' says O'Reilly. 'It was much different in Ulster because in '95 we had been in the Ulster final and in '96 we'd been in the Ulster semi-final and all the lads would say, because I retired shortly after that and Stephen King did as well, but we nearly knew we'd win Ulster in '97. 'We were that confident of winning it that we all stayed on and I don't think we just had that same belief when we got to Croke Park and as well as that, to be fair, when you're not there year in, year out it's different. It's difficult. We probably should have won the All-Ireland that year because I believed we were as good as the other teams. We were as good as Mayo as well that got to the final and I believe we were as good as Kerry.' Long before that All-Ireland semi-final, the counties had been slated to play their opening round League game against each other, in October 1997, in New York to mark the 50th anniversary of the Polo Grounds final. Martin McHugh had already stepped down as Cavan manager and selectors Michael Reilly and Donal Donoghue took charge of the side for a game attended by some 10,000 at Denning Stadium on Randall's Island. Fitzgerald had been imperious once again in Kerry's All-Ireland final win over Mayo three weeks earlier, and his levels hadn't dropped as he spearheaded another victory. O'Reilly has fond memories of 'an amazing trip', with several of the 1947 team on board, including Wilson, his wife's uncle, but he wished they could have given the sizeable Cavan diaspora in New York something more. 'Like, we got two chances at Kerry within a few months of each other and both times we weren't successful so that's what I look back on - the disappointment, and I think that's where sometimes teams let themselves down. There's that extra bit of belief because I know you hear all the quotes of 15 versus 15 and so on and so forth, but I think if you have a little bit more belief… 'I'd love if we had to win in New York just for the Cavan people out there. I wish we had but we didn't.' The links with those games 28 years ago to 1947 were obvious. And as much as we might like to romanticise, it would be stretching it to draw parallels with this afternoon's preliminary quarter-final in Killarney between two sides who come into the fixture on the back of heavy defeats, despite the lineage that is there. 'I don't think it'll come into conversation at all now, no,' says O'Reilly. He is frustrated by the current team's inconsistency throughout the League and Championship, but their performance in beating Mayo recently offers hope. 'Cavan were very, very good and then you come out again and then you put in a good 20 minutes against Donegal at Breffni Park. We were against a strong breeze and we're within two points of Donegal coming up to half-time and then we conceded a goal and then the second half was a disaster and then very poor again last week so it's very difficult to know what to expect.' And Cormac, who's having his best year yet with the county, wouldn't be giving him the inside track either. 'He tells you absolutely zero about Cavan or what's going on or who would be playing. You'd read more in the paper than he'd actually tell you about what's happening in camp but after a match I would have a chat with him. 'We're up against it obviously but I suppose there's absolutely no pressure on Cavan. There is a bit of pressure on Kerry now after being beaten by Meath. 'They're in Killarney, they should beat us - but you never know.'


Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Malachy Clerkin: Cannot wait for Lions tour, but why does rugby always feel this need for overblown nonsense?
It was well into the wee hours on Sunday night and the final round of the US Open had gone medieval. The best golfers in the world were falling into sinkholes all over Oakmont, drowning in grass, dissolving in rain. It was like watching live action Pac-Man, as one of the most difficult courses in the world chomped them all to crumbs. A snuff movie in soft spikes. But then, through the gloom, Sky came back from an ad break and from the opening seconds of the soundtrack you feared the worst. It was the light plinking guitar of The Mighty Rio Grande by This Will Destroy You, a portentously named instrumental band from Texas. You know it better as the music from the Moneyball movie. READ MORE The music played over footage of mysterious footsteps in the shadows. Smoke swirling around eight headless mannequins decked in red. A silhouetted figure stood before the camera, his head bowed, his face obscured. 'Finally, it's time,' growled Scottish actor Gerard Butler , laying the accent on thicker than a cranachan layer. 'It's Lions o'clock...' Ah, no. Please no. Not this stuff. Not again. Alas, yes, indeed, it is time for this stuff again. Regular as clockwork, like a naff Halley's Comet, the rugby industrial complex has started picking up speed. The Lions series is upon us, which means that rugby's comically overblown way of selling itself is cranking into gear. Even in the dead of night when we're watching the golf. Especially in the dead of night when we're watching golf. Gerard Butler is seen during the pre-2023 World Cup warm-up rugby union match between Scotland and Georgia at Murrayfield. Photograph: Andy Buchanan/Getty 'Gggggrraaaaggggghhhh,' Butler offered, scratching at the back of his head. 'Goosebumps,' he said, in case we thought he was selling dandruff shampoo. 'It's ... it's Barry,' he stuttered over footage of Barry John in 1971, as though he himself couldn't believe he was ploughing through this nonsense. On and on, through clips of old tours, old tests, old fights. For some reason, footage of Daniel Craig popped up at one stage, 007 visiting the Lions dressingroom after the third test in 2013. 'Actors, eh?' Butler winked, conveying some class of inside joke. Your guess is as good as anyone else's. All of it was mere preamble to the final 20 seconds, whereupon Butler rose himself to his full height and unleashed various lines from Shakespeare's Henry V. Part of the once-more-unto-the-breach speech repurposed and Tik-Tokified for the digital generation. 'Stiffen the sinews. Summon up the blood! Show us the mettle of your pasture, boys [he was shouting by now], for we doubt it not. And if it be a sin to covet honour, be the most offending souls alive [he was whispering by now].' Look. I can't wait to watch the Lions. You can't wait to watch the Lions. In a world where everything has had its edges planed and its knobbly bits lopped off, the continued existence of the Lions is a miracle. Nobody sitting down today with a blank piece of paper and the sport of rugby union to plan from scratch would dare to dream it up. It's too far-fetched. It makes no sense. The Lions tour is one of the only bankable entities in a sport that struggles for mass appeal. Photograph: Billy Stickland/INPHO Yet, somehow, one of the maddest and best ideas from rugby's amateur days has been preserved. Not just that, it has thrived. It has survived the Covid nadir, it has endured endlessly lengthening seasons, it has kept on as one of the only bankable entities in a sport that struggles for mass appeal. It's here and it's magnificent, one of the absolute highlights of the sporting year. So why can't rugby let us enjoy it for what it is? It's just a sport, lads. Indeed, it's one of the purest forms of any sport, anywhere. Nothing about it matters except the matches and the results. Never mind your ersatz Agincourt cosplaying – sell that. A Lions tour is like the Ryder Cup – you're immersed in it, completely and faithfully, for every last second that it's on. And when it's over, it's gone until the next time and you couldn't care less. Apart from the players and the staff involved, nobody's day is made or ruined by the result. It is its own thing, a glorious mayfly, here and gone in a finger snap. We've spent more than 30 years watching Sky sell sport and other events in every overhyped, overblown way imaginable. Photograph: Billy Stickland/INPHO And that's a good thing. That's what gives the Lions its own unique energy and momentum. The 40,000 or so who will go to Australia for it over the coming weeks are all chasing that once-in-a-lifetime buzz, that feeling of being right there among it when the planets align. There's a lot of mythmaking around the Lions and there's no harm in people wanting to attach themselves to it. Plenty are going for a right good jolly-up – and there's nothing wrong with that either. All of which raises the question: who is that Sky ad for? And why do they only ever use this kind of guff to sell rugby? We've spent more than 30 years watching them sell football in every overhyped, overblown way imaginable. Other sports and events too – the revitalised darts is a triumph of hype and publicity, the aforementioned Ryder Cup will be undeniable come September. And yet they wouldn't be caught dead trying to evoke a 400-year-old play based on a 600-year-old battle to gin up publicity for those sports. So why rugby? It's not just Sky, either. Plenty of pre-Six Nations montages on RTÉ and BBC come infused with this carry-on as well. It's as though somebody somewhere decided that rugby can only be sold to lizard-brained Game of Thrones acolytes, waiting for the mist to clear the mountains so a ball can be thrown into a lineout. Of course, there was a more immediate – and far duller – answer on Sunday night. As soon as Butler finished caterwauling, the golf commentator Andrew Coltart dutifully informed viewers that How to Train Your Dragon, starring Butler, is in cinemas now. Just happened to have been released two days earlier, in fact. If it be a sin to covet bums on seats at your nearest Odeon...