British & Irish Lions
• What did the South Africans ever do for us?
Ireland Rugby
Squad announced for second Lions’ test
The Lions proved that they just weren’t up to the task when they took on the Springboks in the first Test in Durban last week and they certainly do not want to make the same mistake again. Today saw the announcement of the squad for the second Test of the tour, which is to be played at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.
One key area of weakness seemed to be with Phil Vickery who was effectively played out of the game by South Africa’s Tendai – or the Beast as he is better known. He has been replaced by Adam Jones, who will be joined by another Welshman Mathew Rees. They will make up an all Welsh front row as their English seemed to let the side down in the first test.
Luke Fitzgerald and Simon Shaw are two new additions to the team and this is again as a result of combinations that just did not seem to work last week. It is clear that the scrum is the biggest area of concern and it is hoped that the new members of the pack will shore it up significantly in time for the second test against an in-form Springbok side.
The last new face to the team is Rob Kearney. He proved his mettle last week when he replaced Lee Byrne following an injury.
While it is hoped that these changes will bring much improvement to the Lions squad, they are very much aware of the challenge that the altitude of Pretoria poses for them. This has been taken into consideration but it is not until that first whistle blows that the squad will know whether all of their hard preparations have been enough.
Lions: R Kearney; T Bowe, B O’Driscoll , J Roberts, L Fitzgerald; S Jones, M Phillips; G Jenkins, M Rees, A Jones, S Shaw, England, P O’Connell (capt), T Croft, D Wallace, J Heaslip
Replacements: R Ford, A Sheridan, A-W Jones, M Williams, H Ellis, R O’Gara, S Williams.
South Africa: F Steyn; JP Pietersen, A Jacobs, J de Villiers, B Habana; R Pienaar, F du Preez; T Mtawarira, B du Plessis, J Smit, B Botha, V Matfield , S Burger, J Smith, P Spies.
Replacements: C Ralepelle,, D Carstens, A Bekker, D Rossouw, H Brussow, J Fourie, M Steyn.