Euro semifinals turned into B&I Lions trials

SPOTLIGHT: This weekend’s Champions Cup semifinals, featuring Leinster against Northampton and Bordeaux-Begles taking on Toulouse, offer a host of players a final chance to stake their claim for a British and Irish Lions role.

Coach Andy Farrell will keep a keen eye on Saturday’s game in Dublin as well as Sunday’s fixture in south-west France before naming his squad on Thursday for the tour to Australia.

The fixture at Lansdowne Road involves a plethora of contenders, including two at flyhalf who are vying for a spot alongside Scotland’s Finn Russell, a likely inclusion.

Ireland’s Sam Prendergast is set to face off against England’s Fin Smith for a spot in the May 24 Champions Cup Final in Cardiff, with the Lions announcement on both playmakers’ minds.

“A call-up would be the pinnacle,” the 22-year-old Smith told reporters.

“In your career as a professional player, like number one is winning a World Cup and closely followed after that is getting on a B&I Lions tour.

“I’m under no illusion that this is a big, big game, as close as you’re going to get to a sort of rehearsal for that tour.”

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‘Travel insurance’

The other head-to-heads include at scrumhalf, where Jamison Gibson-Park and Alex Mitchell are competing for selection. Josh van der Flier and Henry Pollock are back row rivals, while James Lowe and Tommy Freeman will engage in a wing battle.

“It’s every kid’s dream, it’s the top of the top,” Freeman said.

“To be selected for that tour would be awesome.”

Leinster centre Garry Ringrose has put his hand up for selection with good recent performances for Ireland and the province.

His cool presence in midfield helped the four-time Champions Cup winners keep clean sheets in the last 16 and quarter-final, the only times in the competition’s 29-year history for it to happen in a knock-out fixture.

Leinster are looking for a return to the final after a repeat of last season’s semi, which they won 20-17.

“We [Ringrose and his wife] don’t plan any holidays because you don’t know what tours are happening, whether it’s Lions or it’s Ireland,” Ringrose said.

“Any time I’ve ever booked flights, it’s with the insurance to cancel them.

“I haven’t booked anything, there are a few moving parts this summer so I wouldn’t be looking too far ahead.”

Despite the second last-four tie being an all-French affair, two players will be hoping to be included in Farrell’s set-up – Toulouse’s Jack Willis and Blair Kinghorn.

The two opening games of the tour clash with the semifinals and final of the French Top 14 but English flank Willis and Scotland fullback Kinghorn are in with a fair shout.

Kinghorn’s B&I Lions aspirations took a blow this week after he suffered a knee sprain, ruling him out of Sunday’s game at the sold-out Matmut Atlantique.

It could also sideline him for the Champions Cup Final with Toulouse eyeing a record-extending seventh title.

The 28-year-old, who can also play on the wing, is one of four front-line Toulouse players out of the game in Bordeaux, joining scrum-half Antoine Dupont, hooker Peato Mauvaka and full-back Thomas Ramos.

“Maybe it helps you when you don’t have Dupont, Mauvaka and the players like that, but Toulouse is Toulouse, always a great side,” Bordeaux-Begles skills coach Heini Adams told AFP on Wednesday.

“They come here as the favourites,” the former Springbok added.