Three Lions selection headaches that will be keeping Andy Farrell up at night ...Middle East

BRISBANE — The team who are the sporting talk of the town here are the Brisbane Lions in Australian Rules football, in second place in the table and heading for the play-offs with five rounds to go.

The local rugby league heroes, the Broncos, are doing well in the NRL Premiership, too, chasing a first title in 19 years.

But the influx of thousands of visiting rugby union fans in the next few days should force the chat onto the Test series involving the other Lions – the British & Irish touring ones – and who will be picked for Saturday’s first Test against Australia at Suncorp Stadium.

Here are some of the juicier choices facing Lions head coach Andy Farrell, and a look at how the team might line up for the long-awaited showdown, subject to many possible variations.

Scotland duo Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones are a formidable centre pairing (Photo: Getty)

Owen Farrell is here for a fourth Lions tour and his inclusion as a second-half substitute for last Saturday’s 48-0 win over a woeful invitational side in Adelaide was a twist to the long-running question of whether or not Farrell senior would prefer a settled national combination of centres in Ireland’s Bundee Aki and Garry Ringrose, or Scotland’s Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones – or mix it up with something new.

Then came another twist: Ringrose will miss the first Test under the concussion return-to-play protocol. 

So, the Lions could choose the Scotland pair nicknamed “Huwipulotu”, who have started 17 Tests together, winning 10, plus they are team-mates for Glasgow Warriors and they know the Lions’ fly-half Finn Russell well.

Aki and Ringrose have had 27 Ireland Test starts together, winning 21 – but that idea has gone for now.

And what about the 33-year-old Owen Farrell? He can cover fly-half or inside centre, but only the Lions know if he is ready for a Test so soon after an iffy season away in France cast doubt over his entire involvement in this trip.

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If he isn’t ready, then Marcus Smith or Fin Smith would need to be fly-half cover for Russell, and while the starting No 12 jersey should go to Aki on form, as his carrying threat in this tour has been greater than Tuipulotu’s, the added wrinkle is there are strong injury doubts over the back-three players Blair Kinghorn and Mack Hansen.

The substitutes’ bench has become quite the conundrum. Aki has been a replacement for Ireland alongside a scrum-half and fly-half seven times in the last four years, so it is a ploy Farrell senior is familiar with.

And the Lions do look set for a 5-3 split of forwards and backs – if the scarce clues given by their coaches have not been decoy moves.

Jones with his pace and outside swerve is a huge try threat at No 13, and the full-back should be Hugo Keenan, even if he has lacked game-time on this trip due to injury and illness. That could have seen Kinghorn as a bench dweller covering wing and full-back, but the Scot is struggling with a knee injury.

So where does that leave the substitute backs? A scrum-half, obviously, with Alex Mitchell the likeliest. But then it is two out of Owen Farrell and one or even both of the Smiths or perhaps Aki.

Another possibility is for Earl the back-rower to bring his “hybrid” centre ability. An early knock to Keenan could be a problem, as Marcus Smith has convinced very few people he cuts the mustard as a full-back in defence. But Tommy Freeman could be the answer, as he can play full-back or centre, while set to start on the right wing.

“Huwipulotu” was seen at its best with an intuitive try against the Waratahs, reviving memories of Swansea’s Scott Gibbs and Mark Taylor together for the Lions in 2001 and Leinster’s Gordon D’Arcy and Brian O’Driscoll in 2005.

Sione Tuipulotu talks about the Huwipulotu centre partnership, and what he's learnt from Owen Farrell since his arrival pic.twitter.com/3jfc8NQbf5

In defence, the loss of Ringrose’s line speed is a concern opposite likely Wallaby pairing Len Ikitau and Joseph Suaalii – and Farrell senior is never keen on more than two or three opposition passes before a hit is made. Aki has the requisite aggression. 

Former Wales and Lions-tour centre Tom Shanklin told The i Paper a settled combination is not always for the best: “It’s true you can sometimes guess what a regular centre partner is going to do, because you’ve been in that situation so many times.

“If the defence against you is drifting, one of you steps inside looking for a half tackle and the other one knows to run that short angle.

“If you’re not used to each other, you might be thinking ‘is he passing, is he not? Do I run this line hard?’ and you end up running it half-heartedly.

“But some partnerships can click straight away. Think of Scott Gibbs and Jerry Guscott, or Jamie Roberts and Brian O’Driscoll.

“I see Aki and Tuipulotu as very similar to each other. I heard them being described as north to south, which means just up and down, and they’re not – they’re such multi-threats, both of them.

“They’re big, and they can carry and that gives you gainline, which is great, but because they’ve got an offloading game, and a playmaking game, it’s so difficult to defend. They have three threats – the pass, the run, the carry. And Tuipulotu also has a nice short-kicking game, it’s just the Lions haven’t yet seen the need to use it.”

England flanker Henry Pollock has caught the eye already for the Lions (Photo: Getty)

The Lions could go route one in Test one, and aim to out-muscle the Wallabies in all areas. Or they might play more of a rangy, attacking game with fetcher-poachers as their two flankers.

The former tactic points to a big line-out jumper at No 6, to dovetail with Maro Itoje and the less springy Joe McCarthy in the starting second row, and Ollie Chessum could edge Tadhg Beirne there.

The latter tactic could see Tom Curry at No 6, the jackalling Jac Morgan at No 7 and Jack Conan at No 8. 

Curry on his day is a world-class flanker on either side of the scrum, but the Sale Sharks man has been pummelled by injuries in recent years, and the question hanging over him and a few other Lions selections is how much Farrell will abide by hunches he had before the tour began, and how much by seeing units together in the Lions’ five warm-up wins in Australia since they lost to Argentina in Dublin.

If Curry is destined for the No 7 jersey, it still leaves all sorts of options in the 23 as a whole, with Earl having made a literal late charge by giving the Lions significant go-forward in his tour appearances (while factoring in the “average” opposition, as the Aussies like to put it).

Henry Pollock brings an exciting eye for the unexpected try or line break, but will Andy Farrell prefer experience at first, and not be fussed about deciding against the 20-year-old Englishman and upsetting his many new fans? 

Someone among the back-rowers who also include Ireland’s Mr Reliable, Josh van der Flier, may already have received that uncomfortable look in the eye from coach Farrell before or after Monday’s walk-through at the start of the training week, with the team due to be publicly announced on Thursday.

The forwards coach John Dalziel said on Monday “the back five is always a tricky one”.

Get it wrong, and the Lions whose team song on tour is Rockin’ All Over the World could be rocked back by Australia in the post-tackle, at rucks and mauls, and around the set-piece. Get it right, and a big win is in the offing.

Getting the scrum right from start to finish

Ellis Genge has been an excellent sidekick to Itoje with forceful pre-match and training team talks.

And when the Lions drove hard and straight in the scrum to rattle the Brumbies into reverse in the first half in Canberra last week, they had Genge alongside likely first-Test picks Dan Sheehan and Tadhg Furlong in the front row.

Still, Andy Farrell might be pondering an all-Ireland 1-2-3 of Andrew Porter with Sheehan and Furlong, and allow Genge and fellow England man Will Stuart or Ireland’s Finlay Bealham to launch into the later stages.

Memories of the odd penalty conceded by Genge on this tour when he has been isolated in open play are set against the Bristol Bear’s eye-catching carrying.

So much comes down to how comfortable the Lions feel about a match they are widely expected to win, and how “out there” Farrell – whose watchword for his players is “team-first” – is keen to be.

There is plenty of scope to change in Tests two and three, whatever happens. 

Possible Lions 23 for the first Test against Australia

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