British and Irish Lions: Duhan van der Merwe and Marcus Smith struggle – but Ellis Genge and Finlay Bealham stand out | Rugby Union News

Ellis Genge staked a claim for a starting spot while Duhan van der Merwe and Marcus Smith struggled as the British and Irish Lions kicked off their 2025 tour with a 28-24 defeat to Argentina in Dublin.

Andy Farrell offered a scathing assessment of his side’s efforts in the aftermath as a number of Lions knock-ons, errors and ill-advised offloads incensed the head coach, who also had to watch on as a lineout badly malfunctioned.

As the Lions squad arrive in Australia, we look at the winners and losers following Friday’s defeat…

Van der Merwe has performance to forget, Marcus Smith struggles at full-back

Looking through the Lions side and each individual performance at the Aviva Stadium, two of the players to come out of the contest worse off started in the back three: left-wing Duhan van der Merwe and full-back Marcus Smith.

The few times Scotland wing Van der Merwe showed his quality in the carry in attack, he then missed a pass to create a try either through lacking vision or potential selfishness.

In the first half, the impactful wing powered forward into the 22 but failed to play in scrum-half Alex Mitchell for a free run in, while several other moments failed to bring about chances for the Lions.

Defensively, Van der Merwe also struggled. Ignacio Mendy cut inside him for the first Pumas try, while he was also the player to lose possession deep in the Pumas half before they countered for their second try through Tomas Albornoz in dead time at the end of the first half.

Van der Merwe just looked so far off the pace in so many facets of the game. There is mitigation in that Van der Merwe has not played since the end of March due to an ankle injury. Yet the 30-year-old will have expected to play so much better than he did.

For Marcus Smith, there is no doubting he is a tremendously exciting player with ball in hand and at times stepped up into a role as second playmaker to Fin Smith nicely in Dublin.

At full-back, though, he is neither aerially nor defensively strong enough.

Argentina targeted Smith in the air and found joy as he either spilled the ball or failed to win it, while the 26-year-old carried back over his own try line in the second half before Albornoz kicked one of three penalties in a really poor piece of defensive play.

Smith was also beaten for pace by Santiago Cordero for the crucial match-winning try.

Friday seemed to prove that being in a position of having to play Marcus Smith at full-back against Australia in the Test series would be a dangerous scenario for the Lions.

Genge produces dream Lions debut while Bealham, Aki, Beirne and Freeman show positive signs

Perhaps the standout player on the pitch for the Lions on Friday evening was England prop Ellis Genge, who was absolutely sensational.

The 30-year-old loosehead carried hard into contact all day, making metres, while the Lions scrum proved utterly dominant – Genge winning his battle against Argentina and La Rochelle tighthead Joel Sclavi all ends up.

Genge’s bullocking carry to create Tadhg Beirne’s try was a monumental piece of play.

Alongside Genge in the front row, Ireland tighthead Finlay Bealham was also superb as the Lions scrum roared forward for penalties repeatedly.

Bealham also got through a mountain of work defensively, both in terms of tackling and at the ruck.

Elsewhere for the Lions, Bundee Aki stood out in the backline with his hands, carrying force and brute strength, finishing marvellously well for his try. His combination with Scotland’s Sione Tuipulotu failed to work, however, with the latter looking far more comfortable when moved to inside-centre in the second half.

Beirne impressed in the second row, cutting a fabulous line for his try and showing plenty of quality and energy around the park – save for a costly late neck roll.

Wing Tommy Freeman also showed buckets of quality. It was not a perfect night for the England and Northampton Saints man but his size, pace and willingness to come off his wing and link play was a huge threat to Argentina, and would have been noted by Farrell.

Back row falls flat while hookers Cowan-Dickie, Kelleher produce costly lineout woes

The Lions picked three very similar back-rows to start in English duo Tom Curry and Ben Earl, and Wales’ Jac Morgan, and while Curry impressed with his breakdown threat and work rate, it proved a quiet evening for the other two.

Morgan in particularly will be disappointed, coming off early in the second half having contributed little to the contest, while Earl also failed to impact the game enough – Ireland’s Jack Conan increasing his chances of claiming the No 8 spot without even playing.

Henry Pollock came on for the Lions, and though his handling and pace was notable, he too will not be entirely happy after some errors – most obviously missing a tackle on Albornoz early in the move for Cordero’s pivotal try.

A big area of disappointment and frustration for Farrell will be the lineout, which let them down badly at key points.

Hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie will endure the brunt of the criticism for some poor deliveries – not to mention his butchering of a try when knocking on over the line – but skipper Maro Itoje is far from blameless as lineout caller too.

Replacement hooker Ronan Kelleher’s wild overthrow five metres from the Argentina try line late in the second half was also a killer of a moment for the Lions.

What’s next: British & Irish Lions tour of Australia on Sky Sports

Sky Sports will exclusively show the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, with all three Tests against the Wallabies and six warm-up matches to be shown exclusively live.