Which wingers will Andy Farrell take on the 2025 British & Irish Lions tour of Australia

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00:00Welcome back. So that was Wales. Let's move on to Scotland next. Obviously, I'm here to

00:11represent Scotland with my somewhat sometimes harsh views, but let's move. So I've taken

00:19a note of, I've probably been a bit harsh on Scotland here because I think I've got

00:2411 players that I think I could conceivably be. I mean, a lot of these guys will definitely

00:28go. I've got 11 players I think could conceivably be in the mix. So let me just go through some

00:36of them. Pierre Schumann's someone I think has a good shot of getting it loose head.

00:42And then I debated so much over the back row, because I think similarly to what we were

00:48speaking about with Wales with guys like Jack Morgan, well, Jack Morgan, I think will go

00:53but to a lesser extent, probably guys like say, Aaron Wainwright and James Botham. It's

01:01just so competitive. And there's so many guys that feel very much at the same level. But

01:07Rory Darge is a player that I think is really, he's still quite young. So I think it would

01:14be good to get him on tour because I think come the next Lions tour, he could probably

01:20quite easily be the Lions starting open side. It wouldn't surprise me. And I actually think

01:26he's good enough to even be in contention for that right now. Also, he's got a bit of

01:32versatility, he can play at six, but a lot of back rowers can play six, seven and eight

01:37these days. So I think there's a lot of guys, much like Matt Fagerson's a player who's,

01:43I think, in with some degree of a shout. And if he has a good six nations, I wouldn't be

01:48surprised to see him go. But right now, equally, I wouldn't be surprised to see him left at home.

01:55And then in the backs, the only player I'm iffy at the moment is Darcey Graham,

02:05because I think if we're going to take four wingers, it's going to be Lowe, Hansen,

02:11van der Merwe and one of Graham or Faye Woboso. And I think that's going to come down to the six

02:19nations. But again, just given Faye Woboso's youth and his promise, and given that this

02:26fourth winger probably isn't going to be featuring in the test matches, my gut is that Faye Woboso

02:33gets in ahead of Darcey Graham as good as Darcey Graham has been. And I would be gutted to see

02:37him left out. Where do you stand on that one, Phil?

02:42I think it's interesting the way that the changing the laws of the escorting has changed

02:46the role of the wingers now. And actually, if you look at the way the games are being played,

02:51you do want those chasers and you do probably want those guys that are a bit more physical,

02:54which probably lends itself more to certainly to Faye Woboso. That is his X factor. It's kind of

02:59going up and chasing them and bringing those balls back. And probably that's maybe not Darcey

03:03Graham's strong point. You could argue it might not even be Duane's because obviously he's more

03:07give me the ball and let me run through people. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see how Farrell

03:12plays that and how it pans out. I think if you're going to play that sort of game and

03:16seeing the way the game's moving, Faye Woboso probably is one of, yeah, I would start Faye

03:20Woboso and Lerwood would be my starting choices right now. But we'll see how things play out

03:26in the Six Nations.

03:27Yeah, no, Duhan Vandermeer starts ahead of Faye Woboso, Phil. Come on now.

03:32That's awesome. I appreciate everything you've just said. And look, I've spoken on the show

03:37before. I think Faye Woboso is a terrific player with a bright future. But right now,

03:42unless he scores something like 10 plus tries in the Six Nations, I don't see how he gets in

03:47that side. Not just Vandermeer, but also Matt Hansen.

03:53Matt Hansen, I think probably also gets them. Again, Hansen for me gets ahead of Vandermeer

03:58just because of the aerial, particularly Australia, and looking at how they're going to

04:02play. We know what their game plan is going to be. They're going to go for those kicks. They're

04:06going to look for those kind of aerial because that's what the Australian game has always been

04:11their strength. And now with Joseph Silesi that they've kind of brought in, you really need those

04:16aerial players. So yeah, that would be interesting. I think Faye Woboso is one of the few backs that

04:21England probably will take with them. I think 10 is really interesting. What's really interesting

04:26is that globally, no nation really seems to have got a nail down 10 with the exception of Scotland.

04:32Obviously, you know, Finn Russell is first name on the team sheet, but you look elsewhere,

04:35obviously Wales are going through, who's our starting 10? Ireland have kind of chopped and

04:40changed now that they've moved beyond that kind of era where they kind of knew Sexton was the

04:46first name on the team sheet. England's a really interesting one. Marcus Smith, I think was

04:51brilliant in the Autumn International Series, but he was brilliant because he kind of

04:56had to create stuff out of nothing because the team just had very little shape. I actually

05:01thought that when Finn Smith came on in the Japan game, England played with a lot more fluidity

05:07and a lot more structure and looked a lot more attacking across the board. That's an easy thing

05:12to say because obviously Japan were tiring and Marcus Smith had kind of run around, but I do

05:17wonder what that's going to happen. And obviously the other elephant in the room for Farrell is

05:21what does he do with his son? Does Farrell come back from the cold? I mean, I'm not sure.

05:28Surely not, surely not. Well, hold on now. I know he can play centre as well, but surely

05:35Thierry Pellaudo is nailed on to go and I would argue should even start judged on his game against

05:41Australia.

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