Van Poortvliet called up to train with Lions as cover for Gibson-Park

Leicester scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet has been called up to train with the British and Irish Lions after Ireland’s Jamison Gibson-Park suffered a minor glute strain.

Van Poortvliet will fly to Dublin on Tuesday morning to help the team prepare for their match against Argentina on Friday.

Gibson-Park, England’s Alex Mitchell and Wales’ Tomos Williams are the three scrum-halves named in head coach Andy Farrell’s original squad.

Farrell has called up several players to help the Lions prepare for their warm-up match against the Pumas, with England front-rowers Jamie George and Asher Opoku-Fordjour filling in, in the absence of players involved in the Premiership and United Rugby Championship finals last weekend, before returning home.

Van Poortvliet was England’s first-choice nine before the 2023 Rugby World Cup but sustained an ankle injury, which forced him to withdraw from the tournament and gave Mitchell an opportunity to stake his claim.

Gibson-Park, widely assumed to be the leading contender to start at nine in the three-Test series against Australia this summer, pulled out of Leinster’s URC final against the Bulls on the morning of Saturday’s match.

He is part of a contingent of Leinster players who arrive for Lions duty carrying injuries, with tight-head prop Tadhg Furlong and full-back Hugo Keenan reporting calf complaints.

Furlong has made just nine appearances for his province and Ireland this season and is a particular concern with Scotland’s Zander Fagerson already pulling out of the tour with injury.

Finlay Bealham and England’s Will Stuart are the other tight-head options in the squad, with Opoku-Fordjour, who can play on both sides of the scrum, seemingly on stand-by after his role in camp last week.

Van Poortvliet’s call-up to the Lions leaves England a scrum-half short as they prepare for their match against a France XV at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium on Saturday.