Andy Farrell praises 'selfless' Garry Ringrose for ruling himself out of Lions Test

Ringrose was originally selected in Farrell's starting XV for the second Test versus the Wallabies after featuring off the bench in Tuesday's win over the First Nations & Pasifika XV, having only recently returned from a concussion lay-off that had sidelined him during the early part of the tour.

However, the Irish centre approached Farrell at the end of the squad's training session at Xavier College to say he wasn't feeling right and couldn't play.

The head coach accepted the Irish midfielder's decision, and when the team was unveiled at a media briefing some minutes later, Huw Jones, who started last weekend's first Test win in Brisbane, was reinstated in the starting team.

Farrell explained what happened with Ringrose. 

"Unfortunately for Garry Ringrose, Huw comes in. Garry was actually selected. Unfortunately, in training today, he has had to pull out. That's unfortunate for Garry, but we have always said it is about the squad, and nothing but the squad, and we are delighted for Huw to come in and be ready to go for Saturday."

Pressed further on the sudden change, the head coach added: "It's head-related again. I don't know (the seriousness) at this stage. It was literally as I was walking off the field, he came to me, and once it's mentioned, that's that.

"There was no incident. He was feeling good in advance of Tuesday, fit and ready to play. No incident throughout the game at all. Same yesterday and nothing at all this morning, but with these types of things, players are getting very good at telling the truth of how they feel, so it was a no-brainer to make the change straight away."

Farrell praised Ringrose's honesty in the difficult situation. "It is tough to do that [to rule yourself out]. It's very easy to keep it to yourself and lie and not be honest and open. It was very big of him and the right thing to do, 100 per cent. For the team as well, not just for Garry."

Lions skipper Maro Itoje agreed. "Absolutely gutted for Garry. I played against Garry at U20s, and we have both had our international careers since then. To play with him and get to know him over the past few months has been a real privilege and honour, so I am gutted for him that he is in this position.

"But it also, as you guys have alluded to, shows the measure of the man to be so selfless. All we ask of all of us is to be selfless and put the team first, and when push comes to shove, you see who really does it and Garry is the man who really did it."

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