Farrell’s father, Lions head coach Andy, has not made a like-for-like replacement for Daly, who can play at full-back, wing and centre, but instead chosen his 33-year-old son who has had a world-leading career at fly-half and inside centre, but on the downside has not played international rugby since the 2023 World Cup.
Farrell barely featured for Racing 92 before returning to Saracens (Photo: PA)
The British & Irish Lions always have to deal with players either coming off the back of a very busy season, such as the captain Maro Itoje, or getting back to full pelt after injury or not being involved in the business end of club competitions’ semi-finals and finals.
It is not known how much active training Farrell has been able to do in the more than eight weeks that have elapsed since he was last seen on a rugby field, but it seems a tall order to expect him to hit the Australian ground running, with the team already named for Saturday’s next warm-up against the Waratahs, and just two more preparatory matches before the first Test (of three) on 19 July.
“The [Lions’ fitness] guys have been keeping close touch with him and he’s been training full-bore for quite some time now.”
Bad season
He made 17 appearances but never hit the heights, with the team stuck in lower mid-table, head coach Stuart Lancaster sacked in February and the owner Jacky Lorenzetti memorably describing one Farrell performance as like “a snail going backwards”.
More widely, the reaction to this Lions news among travelling supporters will be fascinating to see.
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Farrell’s unusually meagre return of 41 points in 17 matches for Racing shows how he was often overlooked for goal-kicking in favour of Nolann le Garrec or Dan Lancaster (the former coach’s son).
Farrell had two long spells on the sidelines, in November and December, and again in February and March.
Lions experience
Farrell has the added bonus of knowing what it took to win a Lions Test series in Australia, last time around, in 2013.
In 2017 he played every minute of the Tests but had to shift from his favourite No 10 position for the second and third matches when Johnny Sexton was selected.
“If he didn’t have a chance [of playing in a Test], then what’s the point?” Farrell senior said.
“We look at international games or we look at club games or whatever, but the person’s still the person, and the character is still the character, and the player inside is still the player inside, if he is fit and well and ready to fire. And we see all of that, all the hunger that’s always been there.”
The former England fly-half has made 18 appearances for the Lions across three tours (Photo: PA)
It came to a tipping point for some critics with his red card against Wales at Twickenham in the summer of ’23.
The few glimpses afforded to the outside world of Farrell as an everyday operator usually pick him up on referee’s mics exhorting a team during matches – “Smash him!” is a well-worn phrase – or geeing a huddle of players up in training.
A clue came in Saracens’ coverage of his recent return, and welcoming video messages from team-mates, with Wales centre Nick Tompkins saying half ruefully: “[I] missed you shouting at me, sometimes, when I got quite a lot of things wrong. Can’t wait to hear what you’ve got to say about my hair.”
He will have his 2013 and 2017 touring buddy Sexton alongside as the Lions’ kicking coach, as well as an even closer colleague, former Saracens team-mate Richard Wigglesworth, who is one of the Lions’ two backs/attack coaches.
On the negative vibes, Farrell senior said: “I hope people can get past that. There’s been a lot of that nonsense for some time, and that was in the past.
Positional versatility
Farrell does not replace Daly like for like, as the injured man was an option at full-back, wing and centre, but he does have more than a decade of experience at the top level in other positions: fly-half and inside centre.
Farrell is also almost unmatched in his long experience of kicking for goal in big club and international matches, including the 2019 World Cup final, and numerous European and Premiership finals.
Asked how the existing Lions players would feel, Farrell senior said: “I get [the question] but I know the people on the inside: I know their characters, the people that we’ve got – and you’re talking about the 10s – the great characters, great professionals, great people who understand what it takes to be a brilliant team-mate on a tour like this. I also understand the person that’s coming in as well.”
Record in Australia
On the Lions tour in 2013 the then 21-year-old Farrell made one Test appearance, in the series-clinching 41-16 third Test victory, as a second-half replacement for Sexton.
In five of the six Tests on those England trips, Farrell started in the No 12 jersey.
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