Lions can bite says Macqueen

Australia's coach Rod Macqueen rates the British and Irish Lions squad chosen for a three-Test tour of Australia in June and July as the best combined outfit he has seen.

"Basically it has no weaknesses. On paper, it is probably the strongest team we've seen come over and that's because it's based on a very strong England team," Macqueen said in a statement yesterday.

There are 18 English players, including the captain Martin Johnson, in Graham Henry's 37-strong party, with 10 from Wales, six from Ireland and three from Scotland.

The climax to the 10-match tour will be a three-Test series against the World Cup-winning Wallabies, coached by Macqueen, who will step down from the role later this year.

Macqueen said Johnson was the obvious choice to lead the team. He captains England and led the Lions to a 2-1 victory over then-world champions South Africa in 1997.

The 31-year-old lock becomes the first player to captain the Lions on successive tours.

"He was always going to be the obvious answer and from that point of view if they are going to be playing a lot of the English style of rugby then it makes sense to pick the England captain," Macqueen said.

Macqueen said Henry, the coach of Wales, had been "quite a student".

"He's picked a lot of the support staff from England so that would indicate that the Lions will be using a great deal of England's philosophies, but at the same time Graham Henry is a very good coach and will implement his own ideas," Macqueen said.

Macqueen said it would be a challenge for Australia to prepare for the first Test in Brisbane on June 30th with only one warm-up match - against the New Zealand Maoris in Sydney on June 9th. It was "a great challenge" for Australia to hit their peak so early in their season.

The Lions will play six tour matches in three states in June before the first Test.

Australia's captain, John Eales, also said the Lions would be a huge challenge for his side. "It's a big test but it's also a great opportunity," said the 30year-old Eales, who was a teenager watching on the hill when the Lions won the second test in Brisbane on the way to a 2-1 series victory over Australia in 1989.

"I remember that day well and it's taken 12 years for the next series to come around," Eales said. "That means that none of the current Australian players have ever played against the Lions so that will be a test."