Tadhg Beirne to Lead British & Irish Lions in Final Warm-Up Match Before Test Series

In keeping with his approach on this tour to date, Andy Farrell has named an entirely changed British & Irish Lions starting XV for Saturday’s game against an AUNZ Invitational XV liberally sprinkled with stardust at the Adelaide Oval.

Tadhg Beirne will captain the Lions for the second time on tour and will be partnered by James Ryan, while given how competitive the back three still looks in advance of the first Test against Australia on Saturday week, then opportunity certainly knocks for Hugo Keenan, in just his second start, and Mack Hansen.

At the time of the team announcement the Lions management were still awaiting news of the scan on the injured left knee which Blair Kinghorn suffered against Brumbies and which forced him off in the 25th minute.

Scotland and Toulon’s Ben White, a late replacement for the unlucky Tomos Williams, gets his first start on Tour while another late call-up, Owen Farrell, has been named on the bench and is set to make his 19th appearance for the Lions.

There is an all-Irish front-row of Andrew Porter, Ronan Kelleher and Finlay Bealham on the bench, while Josh van der Flier is also among the replacements for the second game in a row.

British & Irish Lions v AUNZ Invitational XV: Hugo Keenan (Leinster Rugby/ Ireland); Mack Hansen (Connacht Rugby/ Ireland), Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors/ Scotland), Sione Tuipulotu (Glasgow Warriors/ Scotland), Duhan van Der Merwe (Edinburgh Rugby/Scotland); Fin Smith (Northampton Saints/ England), Ben White (Toulon/ Scotland); Pierre Schoeman (Edinburgh Rugby/ Scotland), Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks/ England), Will Stuart (Bath Rugby/England), James Ryan (Leinster Rugby/ Ireland), Tadhg Beirne (Munster Rugby/ Ireland) (capt), Henry Pollock (Northampton Saints/ England), Jac Morgan (Ospreys/ Wales), Ben Earl (Saracens/ England).

Replacements: Ronan Kelleher (Leinster Rugby/Ireland), Andrew Porter (Leinster Rugby/Ireland), Finlay Bealham (Connacht Rugby/ Ireland), Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors/ Scotland), Josh van der Flier (Leinster Rugby/Ireland), Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints/ England), Marcus Smith (Harlequins/ England), Owen Farrell (Saracens/England).

According to the source: The Irish Times.