Andy Farrell’s full-back woes increase as Blair Kinghorn goes off in Lions win

By Duncan Bech, PA Rugby Union Correspondent, Canberra

The British and Irish Lions are sweating on the fitness of Blair Kinghorn as they face the possibility of losing another full-back to injury.

Kinghorn took a bang to his knee early in the Lions’ 36-24 victory over ACT Brumbies in Canberra and attempted to play on before eventually limping off in the 25th minute.

The Scotland star, seen as a likely starter in the first Test against Australia on July 19, thumped the pitch in frustration when he first felt the injury and he is waiting to find out the extent of the damage.

The Lions have already seen Elliot Daly forced out of the tour because of a fractured forearm and after calling up playmaker Owen Farrell as his replacement, Kinghorn and Keenan are left as the only specialist full-backs in the squad, although Marcus Smith provides cover in the position.

“He’s on the bed now in good spirits. He got a bang on the knee, he carried on for quite a bit but there was no need to keep him going,” head coach Andy Farrell said.

“Blair is singing away. There is a bit of music there and he’s singing away as he’s being assessed, so we’ll see how he comes through that.

“It’s late, we have got an early flight in the morning and I don’t know what the medical plan is, but we will get on top of that.”

Kinghorn’s injury capped a disappointing night for the Lions, who struggled to put away the Brumbies despite fielding their Test team in waiting in a dry run for the series opener against the Wallabies.

They ran in five tries and produced some fine moments but were also guilty of making too many errors, over-complicating their attack and looking shaky at restarts – familiar themes throughout their tour of Australia.

 

It was the not the statement performance they were looking for having also struggled against the New South Wales Waratahs on Saturday, yet they remain unbeaten in four matches Down Under.

“I thought we dominated the game. If you got the game and fast forwarded through it, you would see that,” Farrell said.

“On the back of that we scored some lovely, balanced tries, but the other side of the story is we certainly left three out there and maybe more.

“We kept the Brumbies in the game and they were good enough to be able to capitalise on some of our errors and discipline to score some points themselves. There’s plenty to do, obviously.

“We are in a good place in the sense that we are doing well in certain aspects of the game and in fits and starts. But we need to improve in all areas.

“Winning while seeing where those improvements are is a good place to be for the next 10 days.”