Flatley takes centre stage as Larkham is ruled out

A month ago it would have looked a bigger blow than will now be the case but even so the Wallabies must be disconcerted by the loss of their talismanic outhalf Stephen Larkham for tomorrow's decisive third Test in Stadium Australia, Sydney (kick-off 7p.m. local time, 10 a.m. Irish).

Larkham has been sidelined by a muscle strain in his arm. "It is very hard to comprehend why the muscle isn't working," said a crestfallen Larkham. "There's just no signal coming from the nerve into it. It's quite frustrating and I'm not sure how long it's going to be before I can play again."

His replacement, the five-times capped Elton Flatley, has been one of Australia's biggest successes this season as outhalf with the Queensland Reds, who reached the Super 12 semi-finals. It's worth noting that Australia's first Test improvement, which resulted in two consolation tries, and crossing the Lions' line four times in all came after his introduction for Larkham.

More surprisingly, in the only other change from the victorious team of last Saturday, second row David Griffin has been ruled out with a strained hamstring, to be replaced by ACT Brumbies second row Justin Harrison.

One imagines the presence of the 27-year-old Harrison, at 6 feet 9 inches, and Austin Healey increases the chances of some intemperate exchanges tomorrow.

Healey waved a finger at Pat Howard following his intercept in the Brumbies match, prompting Harrison to pointedly barge into the Lions winger after he had touched down, and following Healy's second try late on Harrison took off his scrum cap and threw it at Healey. Harrison also had a few run-ins with Lions' players in the Australian A win over the tourists.