Lions boss Andy Farrell shares Blair Kinghorn injury update and singles out ‘fiercely contested’ area against the Brumbies
Blair Kinghorn played just 25 minutes of the Lions' win over the Brumbies
Andy Farrell has shared an update on the extent of the injury suffered by Blair Kinghorn in Wednesday’s British and Irish Lions win over the Brumbies.
The full-back, who was the only starter retained in the midweek XV following last Saturday’s underwhelming 21-10 win over the Waratahs, lasted just 25 minutes of the 36-24 victory in Canberra.
His early departure was the latest setback for the tourists in this position as Elliot Daly exited the tour last week following a fractured forearm, and the form of Hugo Keenan hasn’t been great.
Having started in the wing in Sydney, Kinghorn was switched to full-back in Canberra to try and bring security to that position ahead of the July 19 Test series opener against the Wallabies in Brisbane.
“I was just speaking to him…”
However, he made a painful exit versus the Brumbies, and it was left to utility Marcus Smith to play the full-back role for the remaining 55 minutes of the Lions’ unconvincing five tries to four win.
Asked post-game on Sky Sports what the prognosis was on Kinghorn’s injury, Farrell said: “I was just speaking to him. Somebody landed on his knee, and he felt a little bit of something. He is walking around etc, so hopefully it’s not too serious.”
Largely criticised for their breakdown lethargy against the Waratahs, the much-changed Lions XV versus the Brumbies were a bit more efficient, but plenty of problems remained in that area and it prevented them from putting up a larger winning margin than 12 points.
“I suppose it [the breakdown] has been fiercely contested over the last couple of weeks,” reckoned Farrell. “The Brumbies, rightly so, thought there was a theme there from last week.
“We have just got to make sure we do our job properly and hopefully the refs will just referee the game… it’s tough in there when people are flying all over the place, but we have got to look after ourselves first and foremost.”
Asked who caught his eye for the Lions against the Brumbies, Farrell kicked to touch, claiming if he singled out players, he would essentially be picking his Test team live on TV, something he didn’t want to do.
“I suppose we’ll hold that for the review, and the rest will look after that,” he said, preferring to reflect more generally on what the Lions produced.
“There was some really good stuff, especially in the first half, there was some really nice, flowing attacking play, a nice tempo etc. But on the flip side, we kept them in the game a little bit.
“As far as the story of the game is concerned, I think I am right in saying it looked like we dominated field position etc, but we just kept them in with a sniff, especially when you get over the line three times and don’t convert them.
“Congratulations to the Brumbies, I thought they came out of the blocks pretty well and stayed in the fight right until the last minute.”
With a flight to Adelaide on Thursday morning next for the Lions ahead of Saturday’s match versus an AUNZ XV, the head coach added: “The learnings from today [Wednesday] and the last day against the Tahs is something at the forefront of our mind and everyone mucking in together to make sure we get a good performance on Saturday.”
