Gatland on Porter: "Andrew is a young man with a big future ahead of him and I'm sure he'll be in contention again in four years time"; Every match from the British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa will be exclusively live on Sky Sports
Sunday 6 June 2021 18:44, UK
Kyle Sinckler will replace injured tighthead prop Andrew Porter in Warren Gatland’s British and Irish Lions squad to tour South Africa this summer.
Ireland international Porter suffered a toe injury in Leinster's defeat to Glasgow Warriors in the PRO14 Rainbow Cup on Friday night, which has forced him to pull out of the touring party.
Sinckler, who toured New Zealand with the Lions in 2017, will join up with the squad once Bristol Bears' domestic season has concluded, with Pat Lam's side having already qualified for the Premiership play-offs.
The Lions gather in Jersey on June 13 to begin preparations for the game against Japan at Murrayfield on June 26, before flying to South Africa for the series against the Springboks.
"It's really bad luck for Andrew and we send him our very best wishes for a quick and successful rehab," said Gatland.
"Andrew is a young man with a big future ahead of him and I'm sure he'll be in contention again in four years time.
"As always in rugby, when there's an injury there's an opportunity for someone else. I have been very pleased to see the way Kyle has responded to initially being left out of the touring party.
"He's showed some excellent form of late and I hope he continues to stick two fingers up to me about leaving him out in the first place."
There may be further injury concerns for Gatland to deal with, after Saints fly-half Dan Biggar and Chiefs No 8 Sam Simmonds left the field early in Sunday's Premiership clash between Northampton and Exeter.
There has not been official word from either club regarding the pair, but Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter said in his post-match interview that Simmonds' injury came at a time when his side were gathering pace in the game, and that the loose forward was removed without much assessment from the medical staff in order to keep the game flowing.
"At the moment we don't think it's too bad," Baxter told BT Sport. "He rolled his ankle a couple of weeks ago and he's been having it strapped ever since.
"We made the change very quickly without assessing it because we wanted to keep the momentum of the game going.
"We were getting on top of them, we were getting on a roll. We didn't want a three-or-four minute injury stoppage to let Northampton catch wind really, so we made the quick change.
"We're hoping it's nothing too serious but the assessment is early days yet."
• Saturday 3 July, 5pm: Emirates Lions v The British & Irish Lions (Emirates Airline Park, Johannesburg)
• Wednesday 7 July, 7pm: Cell C Sharks v The British & Irish Lions (Emirates Airline Park, Johannesburg)
• Saturday 10 July, 5pm: Vodacom Bulls v The British & Irish Lions (Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria)
• Wednesday 14 July, 7pm: South Africa 'A' v The British & Irish Lions (Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town)
• Saturday 17 July, 5pm: DHL Stormers v The British & Irish Lions (Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town)
Test Series fixtures
• Saturday 24 July, 5pm: Springboks v The British & Irish Lions (1st Test, Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town)
• Saturday 31 July, 5pm: Springboks v The British & Irish Lions (2nd Test, FNB Stadium, Johannesburg)
• Saturday 7 Aug, 5pm: Springboks v The British & Irish Lions (3rd Test, FNB Stadium, Johannesburg)
Watch every match from the British & Irish Lions' tour to South Africa exclusively live on Sky Sports this summer.
