Veteran lock Paul O’Connell has been ruled out of the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia with a broken arm.
rugby365
The Irish forward, 33, suffered a fractured lower right arm in last Saturday’s 23-21 victory over the Wallabies in the first Test in Brisbane, in what is a massive blow for the tourists.
O’Connell, who has appeared 85 times for Ireland and has played in the last seven Lions Tests, is regarded as the cornerstone of their forward pack with his leadership and is on his third Lions tour.
England lock Geoff Parling, who was a second-half replacement for Alun Wyn Jones in Brisbane, will likely take over from O’Connell in Saturday’s Melbourne Test.
Parling was due to captain the Lions in their final mid-week match against the Rebels in Melbourne on Tuesday, but has now been withdrawn from the side, officials said.
Ian Evans moves up from the bench to take his place in the second row alongside Richie Gray, with Tom Croft joining the match day 23-man squad.
Wales blindside flank Dan Lydiate will now lead the side against the Rebels in place of Parling.
Officials said there were no plans to call up a tour replacement for him at this stage.
O’Connell’s setback follows news on Sunday that England prop Alex Corbisiero is unlikely to be fit for the Melbourne Test with a calf injury.
Team management have already drafted in Ireland’s Tom Court as a replacement for Corbisiero and named him among the replacements for the Rebels’ tour game.
Court was the eighth call-up to the Lions touring party as an injury reinforcement.
Tough for O’Connell that sounds like a nasty injury hope he recovers alright from it but wonder if it may shorten his career now that he is near the end of it anyway
Heard of O’Connell being out of the tour earlisr today so was wondering who would replace him a bit strange with a fair few games still to go seems like no plan to call up a replacement
Paul O’Connell – 1.98m 111kg, Geoff Parling 1.96m 104kg these from the Lions site, looks Lions pack loose some weight in the scrums and height in lineouts then if Parling is seen as the man to take O’Connells place in main Lions team, he seems quite small for a lock these days.
3 @ Bullscot:
Not so sure how accurate the stats are as the Lions site has Richie Grey at only 2.05m tall the official Scotland rugby site has him as 2.07m and another site 2.08m. Grey must also have lost some weight if the Lions numbers are correct as they have him 120kg whereas other sites vary between 126 and 128kg.
4 @ Bullscot:
Hello Bully… yip saw that Parling is the replacement.
Did you see the 1st Test on the weekend? I recon the Lions were extremely lucky to win in the end.
5 @ grootblousmile:
Hi ya GBS not so sure about that being a good move but then have not seen much of this tour so maybe Parling has impressed Mr Gatland, they seemed to be talking him up especially on the radio based in London so its hard to tell how good he will be. Missed all the rugby this weekend man as this swaers wedding, we were away in lovely place and I had prepped a txt to send u and then saw dont have your number on my phone here so ur message is still in my drafts folder, there are some pics up for you to see if you like ou pel. How are you keeping man?
5 @ grootblousmile:
Did sneak a peak here at times to check the scores though so saw the final Lions score quite a bit after it was over and saw it was close, gosh and the Scotland score was even closer glad they got the win even if it was only right at the end will do wonders for the guys confidence.
6 @ Bullscot:
I’m good!
Wrote an exam this morning at Home Affairs and the buggers asked some questions which was’nt in our Syllabus Study Material… not at all.
Anyway, my legal experience helped with that, and it appears I have the answers correct anyway.
Now we just have to wait for the farkers at Home Affairs to mark the exam.
8 @ grootblousmile:
Great stuff man hope the exam went well for you, great that you can still pick up the book and study, thats no great them asking questions that wasnt part of the course good on you for working it out though, when do you get the results?
9 @ Bullscot:
They are talking 2 weeks… eish
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