The British & Irish Lions return to Australian shores for the first time in 12 years

by Paul Cook in Perth –

The recriminations have begun before a ball is even kicked on Australian soil as the British & Irish Lions prepare for the second match of the 2013 tour here in Perth tonight. Their opponents, the Western Force, have named a weakened squad for the first crack at the tourists in this part of the world since a Western Australian XV took them on at the WACA cricket ground 12 years ago. and it hasn’t gone down too well.

Just over half the run-on side could be described as established elite level players and there are five former Wallabies on board but the rest of the matchday 22 have been drawn from reserves, the elite training squad and club rugby. The reason being, the Force have an important – as they see it – Super Rugby clash against the New South Wales Waratahs on Sunday night, and allowing just four days between matches has forced, pardon the pun, coach Michael Foley to prioritise one game over the other.

As a result, he has chosen the Force’s bread and butter of Super Rugby over the uniqueness of what is a once in a lifetime event for players, if not supporters. At least, that’s the perception from those of a Lions persuasion, the most vocal of whom has been former Lions and England coach Sir Clive Woodward. “It’s unacceptable and disgraceful to cobble together a weakened, second-string club team to play against some of the best players in the world on one of the great rugby tours,” he foamed. “Treating the Lions with such contempt threatens to undermine their status in the global game.” Ouch.

The British & Irish Lions kicked off their 2013 tour with a comprehensive 59-8 victory over the Barbarians in Hong Kong last Saturday

Michael Foley had his defence firmly in place when he was asked to explain his selections and the Lions themselves were in his sights for their much criticised stop-off against the Barbarians last weekend, a window of opportunity that would have been far more amenable.

“We think this is the best team for this game in light of the fixture list we have been given,” said the former Wallaby hooker. “The pressure is to deliver every game you play as a team. It is a balance of quantity over quality. The Hong Kong game would have been ideal for us. That could have been a Force game, it is doable,” he reasoned.

Lions assistant coach Graham Rowntree wasn’t interested in fanning the flames. “It’s not a bad team. There are not a lot of guys there who have played a lot of Super Rugby, but it still looks a strong enough team for me,” he said.

He and his coaching colleagues will certainly hope so as the Lions look to get as much challenging rugby under their belts as possible before the first test against Australia on June 22nd. After a comfortable 59-8 despatching of a Barbarians team that appeared to have one eye on the end of season break, they are looking at this game and the clash against the Queensland Reds on Saturday as vital performance indicators as they formulate their starting XV to take on the Wallabies.

Scrumhalf Brett Sheehan is one of five former Wallabies in a Western Force line-up that has been roundly criticised – Photo: seiserphotography.com

“I thought we set the bar fairly high on Saturday in difficult conditions,” said former England prop Rowntree. “We were delighted with the way things went. They had a great work out and they’ve got that in the bag.

“We’ve said to the guys that in the first three games everyone gets a start, so after the Reds game next Saturday I think we have got to start making some decisions on combinations and having a look at people and certainly by the Waratahs (15th June) and Brumbies (18th June) games, we need to know who we are going to start with in the first Test, but at this point in time there is everything there to play for, for everyone.”

The other elephant in the room regarding this game apart from selections is the potentially aggressive approach to be adopted by the Western Force, particularly given Wallaby coach Robbie Deans assertion that he expected them “to take the Lions apart limb by limb”.

Rowntree insists that while a physical encounter is to be expected, within reason, the players on the field have to be able to cope with any eventuality thrown their way. The focus for the Lions is on themselves. “There has been a lot of local chat about how they want to play this game, how physical they want to make this game, and we’ve got to meet that challenge, whoever is on the field,” he explained.

“We are very respectful of the opposition but we are wary of getting our detail right and our structures up and running. This is another starting XV for us and we’ve got to get our combinations going. It’s about getting those things in place. We need to get our performance as good as it can be. You have got to take your chance on this tour – there is lots of competition.”

After the Welsh contingent dominated the side – and the try scorers – that beat the Barbarians last Saturday, there is an Irish theme running through tonight’s side with eight of the starting fifteen heralding from the Emerald Isle. Jonathan Sexton will get the chance to cement his test credentials at no10 alongside his compatriot Conor Murray at scrum-half while late replacement hooker Rory Best has an opportunity to prove why he should have been in the squad at the expense of the suspended Dylan Hartley in the first place.

Brian O’Driscoll leads them out, a four-time Lions tourist and the only survivor from that game against Western Australia back in 2001. The star centre scored one of 18 tries plundered by the Lions that night as they ran out 116-10 winners and while a similar result is highly unlikely despite the nature of the Force’s selection, anything close to that magnitude will do neither the Lions, the Force or the game of rugby in general, any favours.

Western Force v British & Irish Lions

Patersons Stadium, Perth, Wednesday 5th June 2013 – 6pm ko

Line-Ups:

Western Force: 1 Salesi Manu; 2 James Hilterbrand; 3 Salesi Ma’afu; 4 Toby Lynn; 5 Phoenix Battye; 6 Angus Cottrell; 7 Matt Hodgson (c); 8 Richard Brown; 9 Brett Sheehan; 10 Sam Norton-Knight; 11 Corey Brown; 12 Chris Tuatara-Morrison; 13 Ed Stubbs; 14 Dane Haylett-Petty; 15 Sam Christie

Reserves: Hugh Roach; Sione Kolo; Tim Metcher; Ben Matwijow; Lachlan McCaffrey; Alby Mathewson; Nick Haining; Junior Rasolea

British & Irish Lions: 1 Cian Healy; 2 Rory Best; 3 Dan Cole; 4 Ian Evans; 5 Alun Wyn Jones; 6 Tom Croft; 7 Sean O’Brien; 8 James Heaslip; 9 Conor Murray; 10 Jonathan Sexton; 11 George North; 12 Manu Tuilagi; 13 Brian O’Driscoll (C);14 Tommy Bowe; 15 Leigh Halfpenny

Replacements: Tom Youngs; Mako Vunipola; Matt Stevens; Geoff Parling; Toby Faletau; Ben Youngs; Owen Farrell; Sean Maitland