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Featured Sport News

Lions seek major upturn

Author: Lynda Collins
Date: 02/06/2009

The injury-ravaged British & Irish Lions hope their tour of South Africa does not descend into mediocrity when they face the Golden Lions on Wednesday.

Fears that a repeat of the 3-0 series whitewash in New Zealand four years ago could be repeated this summer were given extra credence by the excruciating display against a Royal XV in Saturday's tour opener.

Although the Lions eventually limped to a 37-25 victory against a team that were billed as the weakest side the tourists will face in South Africa, it was a limp and disjointed performance that does not augur well for the Test series that is to come.

Another poor Lions tour could sound the death-knell for a series of games that does not fit well in an already crowded fixture list and could be deemed an anachronism in rugby union's bright and shiny 21st century profile.

There have been calls for the Lions to host the southern hemisphere teams on home soil in the autumn, perhaps instead of the home country's now regular games against South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Last year those matches were at times embarrassingly one-sided and, unless the Lions can improve immeasurably on Wednesday, they could be on the receiving end of some serious beatings against the reigning world champions.

Saturday's match was given little coverage in South Africa, in sharp contrast to the hysteria that greeted the Bulls' 61-17 thrashing of New Zealand's Waikato Chiefs in the climax of the Super 14 season on the same day.

The midweek game against a Golden Lions side at the imaginatively named Coca Cola Park is also likely to escape the South African media's gaze particularly as Ian McGeechan has named a shadow side with few players likely to be in the team that faces the Springboks in the first Test on June 20.

Brian O'Driscoll will captain a line-up that includes only three players who started Saturday's match - Jamie Roberts, Tommy Bowe and David Wallace.

Mike Phillips, Lee Mears, Phil Vickery, Alun-Wyn Jones and Jamie Heaslip, who all came on as substitutes at the weekend, will also start on Wednesday.

That will mean that of the 36 players the Lions took to South Africa, only Leinster centre Luke Fitzgerald and Munster lock Donncha O'Callaghan will not have been used in the opening two matches.

If nothing else, the game will give several fringe players the chance to prove their worth as McGeechan attempts to put together a side that can push the Springboks all the way in Durban in just over a fortnight's time.

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