Front role a reverse for O'Kelly's Test hopes

A host of Lions players will either be making their first or second starts of the tour today against Australia A, yet suddenly this game in Gosford (kick-off 7.30 p.m. local time, 10.30 a.m. Irish) not only looms as a last-chance saloon for many of them, but also a first-chance saloon. It hardly seems fair.

Take the case of Matt Dawson, a cheeky symbol of the Lions' win in South Africa four years ago. Such an innately cocky player scarcely engenders sympathy, yet this tour is an exception. Last Tuesday he was granted only his second appearance of this tour, and that as a replacement.

To compound Dawson's ill-fortune, he executed a second-half box kick from inside his own 22 as expertly as Howley had done on one occasion, yet Sam Cordingly was blatantly offside in charging it down to run and score. Minus five points to Dawson. It hardly seems fair.

Likewise another hero of four years ago, Jeremy Davidson, while Malcolm O'Kelly is hardly much better off. This is merely his second start and he's been allocated an unaccustomed role at the front of the line.

Snaffling opposition throws constitutes one of the most valuable commodities in modern day rugby and O'Kelly and Scott Murray are two of the world's very best. Yet you wonder how O'Kelly can possibly force himself into the Test 22, much less the starting team, from the front of the line. That is largely a defensive role, or at best a launching pad for mauls. It offers less opportunities for stealing opponents' throws than his usual role in the middle.

In his one start to date O'Kelly bust a gut in the 116-10 win over a hapless Western Australia and where did it get him? "But this tour has been all about that. They're looking at a 95 per cent tackle rating so nobody can miss a tackle. Everything has to be perfect and they're looking for perfection. And so if you can't take pressure of performance in a game then you shouldn't be here."

He agrees the Western Australian game was pointless, and next Tuesday's meeting with New South Wales Country isn't much more than that. "So this is it, it's either this or bust really.

"Of course it makes you nervous. From the very first kick-off you can't afford to drop it, y'know. And you might go up for it and somebody takes you out. So it's out of your hands, to a degree. "But I'll put myself in the situation where I'll line myself up for the first kick off and get involved early. I know if I get a good start I'll relax into the game."

The pressure to perform in this game is greater than any of his 30 caps for Ireland, even his first against a great All Blacks team. "I was young then. For me there wasn't even a thought that I mightn't do well. When you're a little bit older you kind of think of the "what ifs" a little bit more."

That said, he "relishes" the challenge. "When I get out there I'm going to enjoy it as well, 'cos this could possibly be my biggest game on tour. If I go out there worrying about it that's useless. I'm going to enjoy it and get stuck in."

At least O'Kelly has a chance, unlike Davidson (on the bench today). Maybe all of this is part of the masterplan, to put them under pressure to perform.

Put 'em undah preshah,, as Jack Charlton might have put it.

Maintaining that tour performances have underlined the "huge quality" in all the positions. Lenihan said yesterday "there hasn't been one player who has let us down. There is no player in the 37 who we feel we made a mistake about."