RUGBY LIONS TOUR:LIONS COACH Ian McGeechan is adamant that the tinkering process in terms of selection will continue right up until the first Test match against South Africa on Saturday week.
The Scot proclaimed at the team announcement for tomorrow’s game against the Sharks at the ABSA Stadium in Durban that he is more concerned at this juncture in looking at combinations rather than splitting the squad into two separate entities.
It is a policy on which he is not willing to compromise. “The only other way of doing it is that you separate the teams and you say to half the squad, ‘you’re not going to be involved in a Test match’, and I’m not prepared to do that. We know that it is a challenge for us as coaches and them as players. It is unlikely that they (the Test team) will play as a 15 before the Test match.”
His decision to select nine of the players that thumped the Golden Lions 74-10 offers an insight into his thought process with regard to selection. Welsh fullback Lee Byrne gets an opportunity to run with what is patently obvious, barring injury, the Test centre combination of Brian O’Driscoll and Jamie Roberts.
It is not a reflection on Rob Kearney’s performance at Ellis Park, far from it, but rather a chance to see how Byrne and the midfield gel as an attacking unit. McGeechan confirmed as much and it is also transparent that Ronan O’Gara has been handed the same incentive, in being named alongside Mike Phillips at halfback.
Kearney, and the front runners for the wing positions against the Springboks Tommy Bowe and Ugo Monye, will start against Western Province in Cape Town on Saturday. They won’t have the O’Driscoll-Roberts axis that wreaked havoc against the Golden Lions and so McGeechan is challenging by inference that back three to be similarly influential at the weekend.
By the same token he is giving Shane Williams and Luke Fitzgerald the chance to put forward their credentials as Test candidates. Talking specifically about the 21-year-old Irishman, McGeechan pointed out: “We wanted to be fair to him and I was quite keen to give him an opportunity on the wing.”
O’Gara is aware that the Sharks’ game offers him the definitive platform to stake a claim for a Test place. He was disappointed not to see some game time at the weekend but is now included in a much stronger team than the one that took the field against the Royal XV.
Four players are retained from the narrow 26-24 victory over the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein at the weekend, Byrne, Williams, Fitzgerald and Paul O’Connell. The inclusion of the Lions captain alongside Welshman Alun Wyn-Jones prompted a flurry of inquiries about the pairing of two essentially number four jumpers in the lineout. It’s not strictly true or perhaps it is more accurate to say that O’Connell has plenty of experience of jumping at two in the Test arena dating back to his Ireland days with Malcolm O’Kelly as a secondrow partner.
McGeechan pointed out that the lineout ramifications did not preclude Wyn-Jones and O’Connell being partnered together, adding that in his view there was something more pertinent to the dynamic. “It’s important that you are more looking at left and right locks in a scrum. We have not given specific roles outside the lineouts to the locks.”
What he didn’t elaborate on but what might be an issue is that both players like to carry ball and roam the field and that their styles are very similar: someone has to stay closer to home to fulfil the more mundane chores.
The decision to retain the backrow unit of Tom Croft, David Wallace and Jamie Heaslip from the Golden Lions match straddles a number of issues. The triumvirate were particularly effective in discharging their duties but particularly at the breakdown, an area where the Lions have struggled in the two other matches.
Stephen Ferris produced an excellent performance at the weekend and will be a strong contender for a Test place. He is likely to start alongside Martyn Williams and Andy Powell on Saturday. Gethin Jenkins and Lee Mears return to the frontrow alongside Adam Jones with Phil Vickery on the bench. Mears, at this point, appears indispensible given his accuracy out of touch.
McGeechan doesn’t appear unduly concerned that his Test team is unlikely to play together prior to the Test match. “What is important is the time they get together on the training field. That playing and understanding can come out of training.”
After Saturday’s game against Western Province the Lions Test team will probably spend seven days on the training paddock with the remainder of the squad heading for Port Elizabeth on the Tuesday.
The Scot confirmed that Neil Jenkins will arrive on Thursday to supplement the backroom team as a kicking coach although it should be pointed out that O’Gara, Stephen Jones (a conversion) and James Hook have missed just one kick at goal in the opening three matches.
The Sharks confirmed their team for tomorrow’s game and it includes prop Deon Carstens who has been released by Springboks coach Peter de Villiers to play in this match. He had also allowed Ryan Kankowski and Odwa Ndungane to be considered but minor injuries keep them sidelined.
THE SHARKS:S Terblanche; C Jordan, A Strauss, R Swanepoel, L Vulindlu; M Dumond, R Kockott; D Carstens, S Badenhorst, J du Plessis; S Sykes, J Muller (capt); J Botes, J Deysel, K Daniel. Replacements: C Burden, P Cilliers, A van den Berg, M Rhodes, C McLeod, G Cronje, L Mvovo.
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