British & Irish Lions vs Reds: TV info and kick off time as starting XV named and Scotland star gets call up

Sione Tuipulotu has shrugged off jibes by the announcer at Optus Stadium. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Scotland’s presence within the British and Irish Lions squad was increased over the weekend as Ben White received a call-up ahead of Wednesday’s tour match with Queensland Reds.

After kicking off their preparations for their three-test series against Australia with a 24-28 defeat against Argentina last weekend, Andy Farrell’s men claimed an impressive 54-7 win against Western Force in their first tour match down under on Saturday morning.

Dan Sheehan, Tomos Williams, Elliot Daly, Garry Ringrose, Joe McCarthy and Alex Mitchell all ran in tries as the Lions eased to a big win after overcoming a difficult start to the contest. However, one of the try scorers has now been ruled out of the remainder of the tour after suffering an injury and that has led to a late call for Scotland and Sale Sharks scrum-half White.

Why has Scotland’s Ben White been called up to the British and Irish Lions squad?

Ben White is joining the Lions squad. | Scottish Rugby

After initially starting his summer in New Zealand as Scotland prepare to face the Maori All Blacks, Fiji and Samoa, White made the trip to Australia to take his place in the Lions squad after Wales scrum-half Tomos Williams suffered a hamstring injury that will rule him out of the rest of the tour down under. The Gloucester star picked up the injury when he was scoring a try in Saturday’s 54-7 win over Western Force - but that will now go down as his last action of the summer as he returns home for treatment.

After confirming the injury was ‘worse than expected’, Farrell said: “'He's an outstanding player - he's played unbelievably well. But we won't just miss the player, we'll miss the bloke. He's everything you want to have on a tour which makes it tougher for us all.''

Where and when does Reds v British and Irish Lions take place?

The game will take place at the Suncorp Stadium in Queensland on Wednesday, July 2. Kick-off is at 11am (BST), 8pm (local time).

Where can I watch Reds v British and Irish Lions?

Sky Sports are showing every one of the Lions warm-up and test matches during their tour down under. They will be broadcasting live from the Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday and their coverage will get underway at 10am via their Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Action channels. talkSPORT will have also live radio commentary of the match.

Who is in the starting XV for the British and Irish Lions fixture with Reds?

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Farrell has made 14 changes to his starting side following Saturday’s win against Western Force. Scotland outside-half Finn Russell is the only player to retain his place for the week - and there are recalls for Huw Jones and Duhan van der Merwe. Lions captain Maro Itoje comes back into the side

British and Irish Lions: Keenan, Freeman, Jones, Aki, Van der Merwe, Russell, Gibson-Park; Porter, Kelleher, Stuart, Itoje, Chessum, Curry, Morgan, Conan Replacements: Cowan-Dickie, Genge, Bealham, Ryan, Earl, Mitchell, F Smith, Ringrose

What has Andy Farrell said ahead of Reds v British and Irish Lions?

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He said: "This is proper touring. Games are coming thick and fast. Three games in eight days and it keeps on rolling after that, so this is the exciting part of the tour for us. We've just been outlining to the lads this morning, actually, what the weeks are going to look like. Not much training out there on the field, but plenty of mental preparation. We see it as a great opportunity for ourselves to be fast-tracking our ambition, our potential as a team."

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