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6 more Lions players - including Farrell - make Premiership return

(Photo by Getty Images)

Six more of Warren Gatland’s Lions tour picks, including England skipper Owen Farrell, have been chosen by their Premiership clubs this weekend for an earlier than initially anticipated return to action. England players who were away with the Lions were all entitled to have a five-week holiday break following the August 7 last match of the tour in Cape Town and a four-week pre-season before becoming eligible to play again. They were also to have a separate week’s rest prior to the autumn internationals.

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If that nine-week stipulation was applied across the board, players would have been off-limits in the Premiership until the weekend of October 16. However, a variety of negotiations have taken place between all the various stakeholders and the length of the break is now being applied on a player-by-player basis.

Bristol and Bath announced on Thursday that Kyle Sinckler and Anthony Watson (as a sub) would both be involved in this Friday night’s derby match at Ashton Gate and it has now emerged that six more Lions will now also feature in this weekend’s Premiership round three.

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Ollie Phillips guests on the latest RugbyPass Offload

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Ollie Phillips guests on the latest RugbyPass Offload

Newly promoted Saracens have a Saturday afternoon assignment at Leicester and they have included Farrell, who played twice off the Lions Test bench in South Africa, and hooker Jamie George at hooker. Farrell’s inclusion will create much intrigue as the England skipper will go head-to-head at out-half against his national team colleague George Ford.

Elsewhere, Northampton have included both Courtney Lawes and Dan Biggar for their home game with London Irish. Lawes will start from the bench but Wales out-half Biggar will wear the Saints No10 shirt. The regulations surrounding non-England Lions players who play for Premiership clubs were different from the England Lions as they were only entitled to just the five-week holiday.

That would theoretically have freed Northampton to play Biggar in round one of the league season but they held off until this weekend’s round three, as did Exeter who have chosen Scotland skipper Stuart Hogg at full-back for their trip on Sunday to Sale. Gloucester, meanwhile, have included Scottish Lion Chris Harris on their bench versus Worcester. Of the eight players back in action this weekend just two – Biggar and Lawes – featured in the series-deciding third Lions Test.

Of Hogg, Exeter boss Rob Baxter said on Thursday: “He looks real motivated, looks really sharp in training this week,” said the Chiefs boss at his weekly media briefing. “I spoke to him at the start of the week and said, ‘Right Hoggy, how are you feeling, are you ready to go?’ ‘Yeah, ready to go. Feel really good.’”

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AM 5 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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