Few shocks as Farrell picks an exuberant Lions squad

Andy Farrell left out his son, Owen, as he focused on youth in selecting his 38-man outfit to tour Australia this summer

- HARRY LATHAM-COYLE

Let the speculation end, replaced by the 38 certainties that remain. The quadrennial whirring vortex of projection and conjecture, the black hole into which all rugby debate has been dragged over the last six months, can stop spinning – the British and Irish Lions squad has been named.

The ceiling of The Indigo is rather less ornate than that of the Sistine Chapel, and white smoke emanating from the O2 would have been a rather worrying sign, but Thursday’s other major announcement was no less consequential to rugby worshippers than events at the Vatican. A worldwide brand of considerable financial and cultural heft seen as antiquated, anachronistic and insular by its detractors? Stretching the metaphor we may be, but the Lions and the Catholic Church certainly have their similarities.

There has been plenty of pontification on the touring squad over recent months, but the ultimate conclave was rather small by comparison to the selection party in Rome. Andy Farrell, the Lions head coach, gathered his coaching staff at a plush room in London on Wednesday morning at eight o’clock sharp, hoping to have whittled down the lucky few travellers to a reasonable number within the hour after weeks of ongoing conversation. It took until 3pm for consensus to be reached and the 38 names to be etched in stone.

To preserve the suspense, with a captive and seemingly captivated audience of Lions supporters in attendance in east London watching the unveiling live, only a single member of the squad was made totally certain of their inclusion. Who knows where Farrell and his staff might have ended up had Caelan Doris not suffered the most untimely of shoulder injuries, but the Ireland No 8’s misfortune left just one true candidate for the captaincy: Maro Itoje, outstanding in both meanings of the word.