Scotland's Lions fears intensify - Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones deserve Test chance but others now ahead

The widely held perception is that the side Farrell named on Monday will be very similar to the one which takes the field against Australia in Brisbane on July 19.

If so, that’s bad news for the bulk of the Scots on tour, with only Blair Kinghorn and Finn Russell from the eight-strong tartan contingent picked to play the Brumbies. The team is dominated by Ireland and England players who supply 21 of the match-day 23, 12 Irish and nine English.

The most startling omissions from a Scottish perspective are those of Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones, but is there a danger in reading too much into Farrell’s latest centre picks? The head coach has gone for the Ireland combination of Bundee Aki and Garry Ringrose for the Brumbies game, a duo he knows inside and out to use a centre analogy.

Jones is the tour’s top try-scorer

Tuipulotu and Jones started together in Saturday’s laboured win over the Waratahs in what was the most turgid Lions performance since they arrived in Australia. There was a lack of sparkle against opponents who raised their game but Tuipulotu and Jones emerged with some credit, particularly the latter. Jones scored two tries, one of them created adroitly by Tuipulotu, and is now the tour’s top try-scorer on three.

His double against the Waratahs came in the first half but unlike the previous games against Western Force and the Queensland Reds when they racked up 50-plus points, the Lions didn’t press home their advantage in the second half on a frustrating evening in which the required accuracy was missing.

And so Farrell has turned to Aki and Ringrose. If you include the Argentina send-off game, it is the fifth different centre pairing selected by the Lions and the one with which Farrell is most familiar and probably most comfortable. It was his go-to combination at the last World Cup and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the coach felt this was an area of his team where familiarity could give them an edge.

Tuipulotu: only five-and-a-half games since injury

If Farrell is swithering between all-Scottish and all-Irish pairings, the smart money would be on the latter - the Brumbies game has long been identified as the dress rehearsal for the first Test at Suncorp. There is one more game after the Brumbies and before the showdown with the Wallabies a week on Saturday and that is against an Invitational AU & NZ side this weekend.

The suspicion remains that Farrell will rest his big guns for that one but it does offer a last opportunity for those on the periphery of Test selection to stake a claim. It feels as if Tuipulotu in particular is in need of a big game. The Glasgow Warriors man has played only five-and-a-half matches since returning from the pectoral injury which caused him to miss the Six Nations. Three of those have been for the Lions and he now finds himself in a straight fight with Aki for the No 12 Test jersey.

At 35, Aki has the edge in experience and possesses formidable power but Tuipulotu has more guile and is certainly no slouch when it comes to physicality. Much is made of his understanding with Jones and rightly so because it is a pairing capable of opening up the meanest of defences. But when it comes to impressing Farrell, time is short for Test-match hopefuls and the stodgy fare served up by the Lions in Sydney is unlikely to have done the Huwipulotu combo many favours, even if Jones did weigh in with a brace.

The half-back situation is more clear-cut. Jamison Gibson-Park and Finn Russell will start against the Brumbies and it would be a major surprise if they didn’t do likewise in the first Test. Russell in particular has been the outstanding candidate in his position and nothing Fin Smith did at the weekend would give Farrell cause to look beyond the Scot. Meanwhile, Marcus Smith, the other fly-half in the squad, has yet to start a game at 10 which is telling.

Sticking with the backline, and Kinghorn may just have timed his run to perfection. The Scotland full-back missed the Lions games against Argentina, Western Force and Queensland Reds due to the late finish to the French season. But having helped Toulouse to another Top 14 title, Kinghorn has arrived in camp brimming with confidence.

Winger’s chances of facing Wallabies are receding

He started on the wing against the Waratahs and although he didn’t see a lot of the ball, he showed good awareness and is rewarded with the full-back’s jersey against the Brumbies. If he impresses on Wednesday he will surely keep it for the first Test.

Duhan van der Merwe’s chances of facing the Wallabies appear to be receding, however. The Edinburgh wing started all three Tests against South Africa four years ago but it is Tommy Freeman and James Lowe who now look in pole position, with Mack Hansen as back-up.

Van der Merwe started against Argentina and the Reds and came off the bench in the Waratahs game but hasn’t quite recaptured his Scotland form thus far.

Like Kinghorn, Ben White was late to the party - an injury replacement for the unfortunate Tomos Williams - but the Scotland No 9 is behind Gibson-Park and Alex Mitchell in the scrum-half pecking order.

Up front, Scotland are represented by Pierre Schoeman and Scott Cummings but neither is in the 23 for Wednesday’s match in Canberra. Schoeman, the Edinburgh loosehead, has a lot to do if he is to be picked ahead of either Ellis Genge or Andrew Porter in Farrell’s Test 23.

Cummings, meanwhile, struggled with the restarts in the Western Force match but played well against the Waratahs and has an outside chance of making the bench against Australia in Brisbane where Maro Itoje and Joe McCarthy are certain starters in the second row.

It will be disappointing if only two Scots start the first Test, in particular for Tuipulotu and Jones who deserve their chance at this rarefied level.