IRELAND number eight Eric Miller gets a chance to lay claim to a place in the Lions team to play South Africa in the second Test on Saturday when he lines out against Free State in Bloemfontein tonight. (Sky Sports 1, 18.30)
Miller was extremely unfortunate not to have been part of the historic 25-16 win by the Lions in the first Test in Cape Town last Saturday. He was chosen for the Test, but was ruled out by an attack of influenza. Miller's misfortune was Tim Rodber's opportunity and the England number eight played well.
Miller, now fully recovered, knows it will be hard to displace Rodber and, as he put it yesterday, "it will require a monumental effort from me to get into the team for the second Test. The pressure is on me now to win a Test place all over again. But that is a huge motivating factor for me. Tim Rodber played very well on Saturday, I must match that performance, or better it if I am to get into the Test team."
The Lions players chosen for the match tonight will fly from Durban to Bloemfontein in the early afternoon and return late tonight. The rest of the party will stay in Durban.
"We want to get back so that we can have a full training session with the entire squad on Wednesday morning. It is a bit of a rush, but this match was originally scheduled to have taken place earlier in the tour, then it was rearranged between the first and second Tests," said Lions manager Fran Cotton.
"Free State are a Super 12 team and one of the strongest provincial sides in South Africa. They are Saturday opposition," he added.
No member of the team which won the Test is included, but Neil Jenkins, who scored IS points against the Springboks on Saturday, and prop Jason Leonard, who came on as a replacement for Tom Smith late in the match, are both named as replacements.
Surprisingly, the team will be captained by second row Nigel Redman, who came into the party as a replacement for Doddie Weir. Redman, who is 32 was "amazed" when he was called into the squad. "I said then I could not believe it when the Lions called me in and now I get this, it is just unbelievable."
The Test team will be selected tomorrow and announced tomorrow afternoon. And Cotton said yesterday: "The fact that we won on Saturday does not mean that we will automatically field unchanged for the Test. There were aspects last Saturday in which we can improve and if we feel that making changes will bring improvement, then we will not hesitate to make them."
That will offer some encouragement to the likes of Miller and possibly wing John Bentley who, realistically, would appear to be the two most likely to come into the Test team if changes are made.
Free State are tough opposition. They finished seventh in the Super 12 series, in which they won five and lost six of their 11 matches. They will be without hooker Naka Drotske, prop Os du Randt, flanker Andre Venter, all of whom played for the Springboks last Saturday, and scrumhalf Werner Swanepoel, who is a Springboks replacement. They will, however, have flanker Johan Erasmus, a member of the Springboks panel, in the side.
The team tonight includes three Springboks, centres Helgard Muller and Brendan Venter, as well as Erasmus. Four members of the side played for the Emerging Springboks against the Lions in Wellington last Tuesday.
"They will be very much up for this match and will see it as a chance to beat the Lions," said coach Ian McGeechan.
The match will, of course, be played on the high veldt at altitude. They could present the Lions with a very tough examination, but the tourists look to have sufficient depth and certainly the motivation to record yet another victory.
The three Lions players injured last Saturday, Keith Wood, Tom Smith and Gregor Townsend are all making very good progress. They did not train yesterday morning, but McGeechan said: "We have been assured that all three will be fit for Saturday".
Meanwhile, the Newcastle contingent in the Lions party cannot look forward to a break after the tour. Newcastle chairman Sir John Hall has apparently sent a message informing them they must report back to the club on return, or risk having their pay deducted.
England, of course, play Australia in Sydney on Saturday fortnight. For many in the Lions squad it will be a flight to Sydney and not London after the third Test on Saturday week.
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