Lions injury concerns ease after rigours of Hong Kong

AFTER the rigours of Hong Kong, the Lions will arrive in Australia this morning in far better shape than the management could have dared hope.

Lions in good shape

AFTER the rigours of Hong Kong, the Lions will arrive in Australia this morning in far better shape than the management could have dared hope.

There was almost a clean bill of health from the 37-man squad, and even the prognosis on Sam Warburton, the captain, was more upbeat than expected.

He should, according to James Robson, the Lions doctor, be fit for selection for the match against Western Force in Perth, where the temperature is expected to be a more bearable 20C. Warburton is making a rapid recovery from a tweak to fibres around the muscle in his left knee, while Sean O'Brien and Gethin Jenkins return to training this week.

With the Far East stopover out of the way, the merits or otherwise of which will be debated at a later date, it could justifiably be argued that the tour proper starts now in a country where the scrutiny, demands, quality of opposition and overall intensity will be at a level virtually unsurpassed in any global sporting environment. In an era of non-stop, repetitive and not always meaningful sport, the Lions stand out and represent a challenge to Australia that will grip the country for the next five weeks.

"Hong Kong was a good preparation for us," Warren Gatland, the head coach, said. "But the microscope will be on us a lot more. We have been able to bond here without the intense interest that is going to be on us over the next few weeks."

That message was reinforced by Gatland, with particular reference to Owen Farrell, whose antics on the field prompted a warning to the player and the squad in general. Not for the first time, Farrell allowed himself to be drawn into an altercation by reacting to a punch, this time from Schalk Brits, his club-mate at Saracens.

Gatland, publicly at least, had a certain sympathy for Farrell, but added a rider. "It's a nice reminder - and we've had a couple in the last few weeks - that sometimes that sort of thing happens and you need to take one for the team," he said. "You get whacked and you can't retaliate because the consequences can be reasonably severe.

"That's a point we will stress to the players. We might find a similar situation in Australia that something happens and we've got to make sure that we don't react to it."

Farrell appeared to concede the error of his ways. "When someone reacts to you, you try not to take a backward step," he said. "But these are big games; every game for the Lions is massive. To lose someone to the bin would be massive. You can't afford to do that. Everyone has to be disciplined."

Brits was cited and received a three-week suspension that will rule him out of Saracens' first three matches of next season.

Other than that, it is difficult to draw concrete conclusions on a playing or medical front from the game against the Barbarians. The medics remain convinced that the demands of playing in such sweltering conditions, in which most players lost about 4 and a halflb, will have had the same benefit as training at altitude for a week and will provide, if only in the short term, a boost to their wellbeing and capacity to endure extreme exertion, which the various Australian teams will test to the maximum, mentally and physically.

The effects of the long-haul overnight flight in terms of stiffening up are mitigated by the players travelling in business class where they can stretch to maximum comfort. It is an era far removed from that of 20 years ago when Martin Bayfield, all 6ft 10in of him, travelled to New Zealand on an England tour in economy class.

Paul O'Connell and Tom Youngs required stitches, but Robson's bulletin was genuinely optimistic. That was not mere chance but down to detailed planning. The medics and sports scientists had been preparing for weeks for what Hong Kong had to offer and how best to combat it. Ice vests, constant liquid refuelling during the match, cold towels and water fans had done their job in conditions that Robson said were less atrocious than the bald facts suggested.

Given that they know Gatland and his methods inside out, the Welsh contingent looked immediately comfortable with the game plan that the head coach is implementing: power and high-tempo intensity. There was an element of rustiness and of individuals needing to read each other's wavelength, which is inevitable at this early stage. Timing and a greater familiarity will help to eradicate this.

Certain individuals seem to flourish in the environment of the Lions while also epitomising the Gatland creed. Mike Phillips and Jamie Roberts are two such. They did so superbly in South Africa four years ago and gave every indication that they will repeat that level of performance in Australia. Phillips scored two tries as an adornment to his overall robustness and tested fringe defences, while Roberts demonstrated his ability to breach the gain line and cause all manner of problems by the angles at which he launches his salvoes, cutting back against the grain.

Justin Tipuric suggested that Warburton will not have everything his own way in the battle for the No7 shirt, while Paul O'Connell's appetite for the fray could not be ignored. But the performance, too, of two Scots, Richie Gray and Stuart Hogg, did not go unnoticed. Taken out of their natural environment, the two looked more than comfortable, with Gray, in particular, providing a welcome reminder of his talent.

The Times