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Lions Tamed by Injury
One Irish man’s misfortune
is another’s gain. Simon Zebo, desperately unlucky to miss out in the first
place given his X-factor game, big left boot and a disposition tailor-made for
touring, was the latest to be winging his way to Australia yesterday evening
from Houston as cover for the stricken Tommy Bowe.
Following on from Alex
Corbisiero’s tortuous route from Argentina, and Ryan Grant’s arrival from Samoa
over the weekend as replacements for Cian Healy and Gethin Jenkins, Zebo lands
in Sydney on Tuesday.
Given Bowe’s misfortune,
question marks over Rob Kearney’s belated tour debut and that Alex Cuthbert,
Stuart Hogg and, effectively, George North are all doubling up against Combined
Country in Newcastle tomorrow three days after the hard-earned win over the
Reds, there’s every chance Zebo will be pitched straight into Saturday’s game
against the New South Wales Waratahs.
Yet, a la Kearney, it is a
measure of Tommy Bowe’s importance as a proven performer in the Lions Test
arena and ability to cover centre, that Warren Gatland will give the Ulster and
Irish winger a fortnight to recover from surgery on a broken bone in his hand
yesterday. It is, admittedly, a long shot.
‘Couple of weeks’
“The surgeon who spoke to
him said that if everything goes all right it could be just a couple of weeks,”
said Gatland yesterday. “Once the plate is put in, the bones are fixed,
basically.”
Meanwhile, Kearney is
running again and should be in contention to face the Waratahs.
Some players are undoubtedly
more important than others and worryingly, given his well-being is as
imperative as anybody’s to the Lions’ hopes of a Test series win, Jonny
Sexton’s latest hamstring problem prompted a scan which thankfully revealed nothing
untoward. But that he required a scan demonstrates genuine concern about their
key playmaker.
To the notion that Sexton
might now be wrapped in cotton wool, Gatland said:
“That’s why both ‘10s’
aren’t involved on Tuesday. Owen (Farrell) got a bit of a dead leg last night
and Johnny’s hamstring tightened up, so we have to make sure they are right.”
But Sexton has not, according to the coach, played enough rugby before the
series commences. “He is going to need to play again before the first Test.”
Hence, Stuart Hogg partners
Conor Murray at half-back, with the converted Scotland fullback set to benefit
from a renewal of the Test midfield partnership of four years ago, Jamie
Roberts and, captain again, Brian O’Driscoll, outside him.
Richie Gray is the fourth
player to back-up from last Saturday’s win, while Corbisiero and Grant go
straight into the starting lineup and bench respectively and, interestingly,
Seán O’Brien moves to blindside alongside Jamie Heaslip and Justin Tipuric in
the backrow.
‘New combinations’
These are certainly no
dirt-trackers. “No, not at all,” said Gatland, who admitted that ideally they
wouldn’t want to have experimented as much as they did against the Reds. “For
us to put a team together at short notice, who hadn’t played together before,
with new combinations, to come away and win is a real credit to them.
“For us now, ideally we’d
have another couple of warm-up games but we need to start thinking about the
Waratahs and putting a side together with more potential combinations ahead of
the first Test. Our original thought was to look at Tuesday then back players
up, but that hasn’t been possible at the moment.”
Perhaps not co-incidentally,
Bowe and Manu Tuilagi were both asked to back up twice in four days last
Saturday and both suffered injuries, while this is effectively North’s third
game in seven days.
Injuries apart, the Lions
head coach couldn’t be happier with where they are at, with the Reds game
“exactly what we wanted. We would like a couple more lead-in games, and for the
first two games to be a bit tougher than they were, but that’s what happens on
tour – you’re not dealing with tough teams all the time.
“So we’ll have to see what
Tuesday night is like. The Waratahs are missing a lot of players as well, so
how tough are they going to be? The Brumbies are different – they will be tough
before that first Test.”
Have a go
Glad as Gatland was to have
the derring-do Reds have a go from everywhere on Saturday, he wasn’t expecting
a similar roll of the dice from the Wallabies come the first Test back in
Brisbane a fortnight hence, not least as Quade Cooper won’t be setting the tone
in his own inimitable style.
Although Robbie Deans won’t
formally announce the six players to be added to the Wallabies squad, it’s been
confirmed that while Kurtley Beale will be one of them, Cooper won’t be.
The rugby world would be a
duller place without Cooper, and the tour will be henceforth, but it was fun
while it lasted.