British and Irish Lions: Five talking points after Andy Farrell’s side begin 2025 tour with Argentina defeat

There was no competition for word of the day at the Lions media briefing on Wednesday – “cohesion” was clearly the focus.

Given how clunky these affairs have been in the recent past, and that this represented a first hit for what is a brand new side, it was fair to assume clicking quickly would be a challenge.

Two-time Lion Tadhg Beirne, for one, seemed a bit perplexed by such a notion however, reminding that we were talking about “world class” players.

Across their first 80 minutes together, the Lions attack felt like it should be judged in two different facets – ambition and execution.

In terms of the former, their shape was strong and they created plenty of opportunities through sharp passages.

When it came to the latter, however, they were lacking. Offloads that went to ground or straight into Argentine hands were one serious issue, as were passes just a beat off the runner.

While there was the bones of an encouraging display with ball in hand, Farrell will clearly demand his side are sharper once they hit Australian shores.

“The whole story of the game is that we compounded too many errors and in the end weren’t able to put the pace on the game that we wanted to because of that,” said the irked head coach afterwards.