With Leinster, Bath and Leicester Tigers all involved in domestic finals last weekend, and Toulouse’s season still ongoing in France, it was a smaller panel that Farrell brought to Portugal last week for a training camp.
Although Leinster hooker Ronan Kelleher will be on the bench on Friday night six days after lifting the URC, the remainder of the side picked to face Argentina were present when preparations kicked off.
“Those guys are ahead of the game. It turned out quite a nice mix for those guys to get ahead of curve [and was] quite a diverse group in terms of combinations and people not playing together,” said Farrell.
“It’s nice for that group to have a week where they get settled in and for the other guys to join them on Monday, some on a high, one [Leicester’s Ollie Chessum] not, but it’s nice for them to have a bit of time to spend with the lads, get to know everyone, and see what’s been going on.
“They’ve had one training session so it was nice to get everyone together finally.”
Despite picking from a smaller pool of players, Farrell believes that the talent at his disposal this weekend shows the depth of the touring party.
“It’s exciting. I did an exercise a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve done it about five times since, of what you think that the Test side could be. You can’t even go there because there’s such good competition.
“The exciting thing about Friday night is these guys get to show their team-mates sat in the stand what they’re all about.
“Ultimately what happens on these tours, you can talk about anything you want to but, these guys, all they’re trying to do is gain respect off one another.”
After facing Argentina, the Lions will fly to Perth and meet Western Force on 28 June with the first Test against Australia taking place in Brisbane on 19 July.
