Garry Ringrose has been ruled out of the opening British and Irish Lions Test with Australia, after suffering a concussion in Wednesday's win against the Brumbies in Canberra.
The Ireland centre had been a real contender to start the first Test in Brisbane next Saturday after three exceptional performances on tour, scoring three tries, with Huw Jones now a certainty to take the 13 shirt at Suncorp Stadium.
Ringrose played the full 80 minutes in Wednesday’s win but presented with symptoms of concussion after the game, and head coach Andy Farrell has since confirmed he failed a head injury assessment, the stand-down period of which will see him miss next week’s game against the Wallabies.
"Garry had concussion from last week, with lingering signs of concussion. He had a headache and unfortunately, he failed that," Farrell said after this morning's 48-0 win against an AUNZ Invitational XV.
"It’s very sad for Garry, but he’ll be back within the rest of the series, very shortly. That’s just the way the game goes."
With Jamie Osborne joining the squad in Adelaide today, it’s unlikely Farrell will be calling up additional midfield cover, but he will have to add a hooker to his squad, after a worrying head injury for Luke Cowan-Dickie.
The hooker was carried off late in the first half after appearing to lose consciousness in the process of making a tackle, and while he was thankfully seen walking around on the sideline during the second half, he will now go through the return-to-play protocols.
"He’s good, he’s in good spirits," Farrell added, when asked about Cowan-Dickie.
"He got up straight away as he got off the stretcher and he’s back to being his normal self.
"It’s unfortunate for him, but unfortunately it looked like a concussion there, so we’ll see what has to happen off the back of that.
"It certainly looks like it [calling up another hooker], but we’ll see what the medics say."
The Lions produced their best performance of the tour so far as they scored eight tries against the combined Australia and New Zealand side, and their 48-0 win would have been far greater had Marcus and Fin Smith had their kicking radar on – scoring four of eight conversions between them.
Tries for Duhan van der Merwe and the impressive Ben White inside the opening 10 minutes sent them on their way, as they nilled an opponent for the first time since the 2013 tour, also in Australia.
Van der Merwe scored a hat-trick, with six of the eight tries coming from Scotland as Scott Cumminga and Sione Tuipulotu also crossed the line, before Rónan Kelleher and Henry Pollock also got on the scoresheet.
"I thought it was a good, professional performance. I suppose when you play these types of games, the type of personnel you’re coming against, all sorts of things could happen.
"We played a nice, controlled game of rugby and really let them into the game, or get going, or get their confidence going. We’ll be pleased with our game control, that’s for sure.
"We stayed at it, and it’s never going to be perfect as we always say, but we stayed at all the next moments and kept going as a team. That’s the main thing, when you put it all together.
"There were some great individual performances, but I thought we gelled well as a team today.
"It’s the collective, it showed that even on stuff like the kick-chase and the pressure that we created to get the ball in the places we wanted to get the ball. We worked so hard on defence for one another and created turnover ball. Very pleasing," Farrell said.
Jones was exceptional at outside centre and looks to be a shoo-in for the 13 shirt next week, while Hugo Keenan is in pole-position to start at full-back after an impressive display in the backfield.
White, Pollock, Mack Hansen, Ben Earl, Jac Morgan and Owen Farrell also gave the management team plenty to think about before the first Test squad is named on Thursday.
And the head coach (above) says today’s win is making that squad difficult to pick.
"That’s great isn't it? That’s exactly what we want, people putting their hands up.
"I tell you, this group will all roll in together and go after the Test series together.
"We need to relax and enjoy this. We have a travel day tomorrow, but we need to enjoy a bit of downtime because it’s been full on for 14 or 15 days.
"I’m really proud of everyone involved, not just the players, but everyone involved. It's been a tough old block as everyone knows, but we’re into the next block and that’s most important, that’s what we came for."
