British and Irish Lions Watch: Finn Russell dominates Premiership final

Following the Premiership and URC finals, the British and Irish Lions will be as close to full strength as they have been, with only one player missing. 

The Lions will face Argentina in the 1888 Cup this Friday, with training in Dublin scheduled this week as preparation. 

Toulouse’s Blair Kinghorn will be the only selected player unavailable, given his commitments in the Top 14 this weekend, but aside from him, the whole squad is together. 

That means that 37 out of the 38 selected will be in training. 

This follows a training week in Portugal last week, which had no Leicester Tigers, Bath or Leinster players and allowed Jamie George and Asher Opoku-Fordjour the chance to train with the Lions. 

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Those two will return to their clubs following training at UCD in Dublin today, meaning that they will be unavailable for selection on Friday. 

The 15 players involved in the two finals will join up with the rest of the squad today, as the clash with Argentina looms large. 

Bath’s two Lions, Finn Russell and Will Stuart, will join the camp as Premiership winners, with losing finalist Ollie Chessum the only Leicester player to have been selected. 

All other 12 players are from Leinster, who won the URC after defeating the Bulls comfortably at Croke Park on Saturday. 

While they are all set to join up with the squad today, they will commence training tomorrow. 

Finn Russell 

What a performance from the likely starting fly-half for the Lions. 

Russell was at his maverick best against the Tigers, showing an immense variation to his play and disrupting the opposition defence at almost every opportunity. 

While not everything he did came off, he kept plugging away and kept the defence guessing. 

His defining moment was the pass that he intercepted to break free and then passed to Max Ojomoh for an easy finish. 

Perfect from the tee as well, aside from a disallowed try’s conversion being missed, he stepped up when it mattered most. 

Some may disagree with some slight theatrics shown for Dan Cole’s yellow, but it was rewarded with a card for the opposition player, so if he did overreact, then it worked. 

Josh van der Flier 

Crucial in Leinster’s win over the Bulls, van der Flier worked tirelessly in the back row and tackled absolutely everything in his wake. 

He was also solid going forward with some powerful running with the ball in hand. 

Got himself a try midway through the first half after a lineout maul, which was the least that his hard work and endeavour deserved. 

Played extremely well and stepped up to the plate in such a big game for Leinster, in which they had all of the pressure on themselves. 

Jamison Gibson-Park 

The one main negative to come pit of this final from a Leinster perspective happened just before kick-off. 

Gibson-Park was ruled out of the final just hours before the game started, with an injury sustained in the semi-final against Glasgow Warriors proving tough to recover from in time. 

As the expected starting scrum-half for the Lions tour, his fitness will be heavily monitored and could give an opening for Tomos Williams or Alex Mitchell to force their way into the side. 

Exact details of the injury and its severity are yet to be released, with it suspected not to be a serious one. 

Jack Conan 

Another Leinster back row that was outstanding, Conan has been a very good Caelan Doris replacement, and Andy Farrell will be hoping that his form continues going into the tour. 

He carried very well, which included a very early try score, and he really tore apart the Bulls team at times. 

The South African side is known for their power in the back row, but Conan used his intelligence to not make it into a physical battle, instead playing to his and Leinster’s strengths. 

Some huge carries proved key for the Irish side. 

Ollie Chessum 

Chessum can take a lot of pride from how he played despite defeat, leaving everything on the pitch in an industrious performance. 

The lock worked hard throughout, was very good as per usual from the lineout and was very good at the breakdown. 

It was a great individual performance, and he would be getting a lot more plaudits for it had his side got over the line. 

While not a nailed-on starter for the Lions by any stretch of the imagination, he is helping his hopes. 

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