All the way back to Ollie Campbell and Tony Ward, and indeed beyond, and more so than any other position in Irish rugby, as we have been reminded over the last month, nothing generates a debate quite like the identity of our first-choice No 10.
But the other source of bar-stool discussion which is set to generate even more disagreement will revolve around the eventual owner of the Lions No 10 jersey. This debate has already started and won’t be resolved until a couple of days before the first Test against Australia on Saturday, July 19th.
Even at that, the jostling for inclusion in the Lions squad at outhalf has not looked so open to conjecture for a very long time. These are among Andy Farrell’s key decisions and barring a Lions whitewash, they could yet be debated for a long time to come.
Rewind to say 2013, when Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell were the two nominated outhalves in the Lions squad to tour Australia. Sexton was already 27, had accumulated 36 caps, had guided Leinster to three Champions Cups and had been part of Ireland’s 2013 Six Nations-winning team.
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Farrell was only 21 but had already established himself over the previous two seasons as England’s outhalf. Sexton started all three Tests, with Farrell coming on as a replacement in each of those matches as the Lions won the series 2-1. So, not much debate there then.
Four years on, Sexton and Farrell were named along with Dan Biggar for the trip to New Zealand; a trio of Test quality outhalves that will take some bettering. So good were Sexton and Farrell that Biggar didn’t play one minute in the Test series.
Farrell started the first Test in Eden Park, with Sexton coming on as a replacement, as the All Blacks won 30-15, before Warren Gatland and co saw the error of their ways in recalling Sexton and shifting Farrell to 12 as the Lions won the second Test and drew the third.
Despite Sexton therefore losing only once in five Test starts, Gatland cited the player’s durability and ability to play in three successive Tests when not including him in the 2021 squad for South Africa. That decision was made to look additionally ill-advised when Sexton played all bar the Italy match in Ireland’s 2023 Grand Slam and was an ever-present in the three-match series win in New Zealand.
Finn Russell recovered from injury to have a transformative effect on the third Test against South Africa in 2021. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho
Instead, Farrell and Biggar were joined by Finn Russell, who had been one of the additional six Scottish and Welsh players called up on the 2017 tour.
Biggar started all three Tests, with Farrell brought on as a replacement for the first two, before Russell recovered from injury to have a transformative effect on the third Test as an 11th-minute replacement for the stricken Biggar.
In all these instances, the outhalves were relatively proven international players, but that doesn’t look like being the case this time.
Admittedly, there is still plenty of water to pass under the bridge, not least a full Six Nations championship. However, the 35-year-old Biggar has retired from Test rugby, plays in Toulon and has ruled himself out of Lions consideration.
Farrell, 33, has effectively drawn the curtain on his England career and is playing with Racing 92. He hasn’t seemingly set the Top 14 ablaze yet, besides which the French Championship runs until the first weekend of June, following by three playoff weekends.
That could mean Farrell would not finish his season with Racing until at least a fortnight before the Lions’ warm-up game against Argentina in the Aviva Stadium, and potentially up to and including that game or even the first game in Australia. Then again, he should have one member of the coaching staff who will be sympathetic to his cause.
As things stand then, Russell must be in pole position, with Marcus Smith (a late call-up four years ago) also well placed to make the cut, whereas Gareth Anscombe or any prospective Welsh candidate looks a very long shot at this juncture.
Jack Crowley and/or Sam Prendergast will need to make a sizeable splash in the Six Nations to be included when the squad is named in either late April or, more likely, early May, as was the case four years ago.
There hasn’t been an outhalf bolter in a Lions tour at this far remove for some time, but if ever there was an opening for this to happen, this looks like the season.
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