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Borthwick giving nothing away on Farrell fitness
By Peter Thompson
Steve Borthwick is not ruling Owen Farrell out of the British and Irish Lions' first Test against New Zealand next week.
Farrell will not face the Maori All Blacks on Saturday after he was declared unfit due to a quadriceps injury the England man is said to have sustained in training.
Lions assistant coach Borthwick on Friday said that Farrell may recover in time to take on the world champions at Eden Park next Saturday.
"He didn't train today, he's had a grade one muscle strain," Borthwick said.
"The medical team will take great care of him. Hopefully he'll be back on the field as soon as possible.
"When exactly it happened, I can't tell you. It was felt yesterday, dealt with immediately, and he went into recovery protocols straight away."
Asked if 10 days was a realistic timeframe for Farrell to return, Borthwick said: "I certainly don't go by that.
"I listen to our medical team, who are far more qualified than I am. He'll be back as quickly as he's fit and able."
Borthwick added: "You deal with the hypothetical and I'll deal with what the facts are. He'll be back as soon as he's fit and able to be back.
"Owen is an incredible professional. We've got a fantastic medical team and he'll be back on the field as soon as he's physically able.
"They'll monitor that on a daily basis, and we'll get updates on a daily basis. If you want any more detail on that you'll have to ask Warren [Gatland, Lions head coach] when he's next up."
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Latest Comments
Agreed. And I don't have much more to say on it, but I had been having one thought that sprang to mind at the tail of this discussion, and that is that it's not all about Razor.
It's not about any coach being "right". I think a lot of selections can become defense and while it doesn't really apply here I really enjoyed that Andy Farrell just gave into the public demands and changed out his team for the change that had been asked for. Like why not? This is the countries team, keep them engaged. The whole reason i've only just finished watching the game was because I wasn't interested in watching any of the selected players against a team like Italy (still actually enjoyed the first half with the contest Italy made of it).
Faz leap frogs a younger half back into start. He hands the golden child the game over July's golden child. He gives an old winger a go, a new flanker and hooker. None of them really did any good, certainly not enough to suggest they should have been promoted above others, but who cares? You won, and you gave the country what they wanted, that's all that matters after all. It's for the country, not the one in charge who thinks they have to have their own pied piper tune playing.
Go to commentsAs Naas would say... A win is a win.
It was not perfect and at times frustrating. All 3 tests were not the best by the Boks and they still found ways to win.
Rassie would have noted the sloppyness at times and silly mistakes. The 9's made amateur handling mistakes when clearing the rucks in all 3 tests.
Once the "stupid" mistakes are eliminated, this Bok team will be very very hard to beat.
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