Tomos Williams injury leaves Farrell’s Lions facing race to fill scrum-half slot

The British & Irish Lions are weighing up their scrum-half options after an injury to Tomos Williams that threatens to sideline the Welshman at the busiest stage of the squad’s Australian tour.

The head coach, Andy Farrell, said a decision on calling up a replacement would be made on Sunday, with Scotland’s Ben White among the leading contenders to replace Williams at No 9.

Williams contributed two tries in a fine all-round performance as the Lions eased to a 54-7 victory over Western Force but tweaked his left hamstring while diving over the line for his second score. It leaves the Lions with only two fit scrum-halves, one of whom – Jamison Gibson-Park – has been managing a strained glute muscle.

Farrell said Gibson-Park would be fit to face the Queensland Reds on Wednesday but the Lions will need some cover if Williams is ruled out even for a short period, with Alex Mitchell as the only available option in the position. White has just arrived in New Zealand, where Scotland are due to kick off their summer tour against the Maori All Blacks next Saturday, and could easily hop on a plane to Brisbane if required.

For the moment, Farrell is still waiting to learn the severity of the injury to Williams, the Premiership’s player of the season with Gloucester. “There was plenty of cramp last week, let’s hope it is one of those,” said Farrell. “He was playing well and I am sure there is a bit of concern there, but you can only deal with the here and now so fingers crossed.”

View image in fullscreen Henry Pollock looks on from the bench after being shown a yellow card. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

Farrell, however, is adamant that there is no danger of Gibson-Park sitting out the Reds game. “Jamison is fit and ready to go and has been training fully for the best part of a week. We are happy with that but we will only know [about Williams] in the morning.

“I don’t what the timings are of that, with the flights, but you have to let these things settle down and give it a little bit of space. There is always something that is going to happen you are not quite sure about, that is the nature of the tour. We need to make the right call for the group.”

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Of their opening game in Australia, Farrell declared himself moderately satisfied with the result in the wake of the Lions’ defeat by Argentina in Dublin last week. “I am happy with the scoreline and how we got to that point because it wasn’t always going our way. We fixed things up and played some good rugby and scored some nice tries.”

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He was pleased, too, with the performances of Mack Hansen and the youthful Henry Pollock, despite the latter being sent to the sin-bin just before half-time. “He got a yellow card because of repeated infringements, which was fair enough, but you saw his point of difference, that is for sure. He is learning all the time and there is plenty to work on to make sure we are the team we want to be. He is part of that.”

View image in fullscreen Mack Hansen’s performance was praised by the head coach, Andy Farrell. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

Pollock also received a positive review from the Lions’ captain for the day, Dan Sheehan. “I thought he was brilliant today,” the Ireland hooker said. “He does his own thing, he plays his own way which is probably different to a lot of the forwards. I enjoy that kind of rugby: off the cuff, see what’s in front of you and make it happen. With his skillset and speed he can certainly make it happen.

“It is just about trying to make sure he is doing the right thing for the team all the time. All these big games are massive for him, massive for all of us. He will just get better and better from here.”

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