Rugby Union: Carling is cast in support role to Guscott: Selectors reveal English core at heart of their thinking as tourists prepare to meet Otago
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THE LIONS' selectors last night named a team to play Otago at Carisbrook tomorrow - the hardest match of the tour so far - which more than merely approximates to their first choice. But they still maintained an unlikely pretence that there is all for everyone to play for with the first Test against the All Blacks one short week away.
Against Otago the core of the team is formed by Englishmen, 10 in all, including Will Carling, even though he has been the least assertive of the four centres so far. The thinking seems to be that to release the sumptuous skill of Jeremy Guscott at outside centre, a genuine inside centre is needed - and Carling, quite apart from having an outstanding talent, is the only one of that type on the tour.
This can be seen as bad luck for the Scotts, Gibbs and
Hastings, but after four winning games in which the four nationalities have been deliberately intermingled, now is deemed to be the time to revert to proven combinations, which means English half-backs and an English back five in the forwards.
Whatever Geoff Cooke and Ian McGeechan may maintain, with very few exceptions the members of tomorrow's side will have to lose their places rather than their rivals doing anything positive to oust them. As Rob Andrew (knee) and Richard Webster (ankle) were not considered, the exceptions must include them; both will be fit for consideration for next Tuesday's Southland game.
However, defeat by Otago, the 1991 New Zealand champions and last year's runners-up, would be bound to change
selectorial perceptions. The knowledge that things could yet go wrong is what Cooke and McGeechan are relying on to keep their squad as closely united as they have been hitherto.
It is the point of any tour when the disappointment of exclusion tests the character of those left out, but Cooke was doing his best yesterday to show that his options remained open. 'It's a good indication but it's not necessarily the Test side,' he said. 'There are still a number of positions that we've got good competition for and need further discussion. There's a good nucleus of the Test side but I'm not saying any more than that.'
In fact Cooke said quite a bit more under persistent questioning about the significance of this selection. A few days earlier he said that the side to play Otago would be the first into which Test indications could be read but contrived to make it sound as if it would certainly be a shadow Test team.
Now Cooke is desperately rowing back, anxious to ensure none of the Lions considers himself out of contention. 'I'm simply saying that we will put out a side on Saturday that will contain a large number of players we would expect to play in the first Test,' he repeated.
Otago lost all their matches in the recent Super 10 competition but this is the closest they have been this season to a full- strength team. Three - Timu, Joseph and Pene - were in the predictable New Zealand 21 named yesterday for next Saturday's Test in Christchurch.
The Lions went into purdah for training in Christchurch
yesterday - the second private session of the tour - before moving to Dunedin. They will have two more when they return to Christchurch next week for the Test, according to Cooke to avoid prying All Black eyes.
Otago: J Timu; A Bell, M Ellis, J Leslie, P Cooke; S Bachop, S Forster; N Moore, D Latta (capt), M Mika, A Rich, G Macpherson, J Joseph, A Pene, J Kronfeld.
BRITISH ISLES: G Hastings (Scotland, capt); I Evans (Wales), J Guscott, W Carling, R Underwood; S Barnes, D Morris (all England); N Popplewell (Ireland), K Milne, P Burnell (Scotland), M Bayfield, W Dooley, M Teague, D Richards, P Winterbottom (all England). Replacements: A Clement (Wales), S Hastings (Scotland), R Jones (Wales), J Leonard, B Moore (England), M Galwey (Ireland).
Referee: C Hawke (Timaru).
NEW ZEALAND (v British Isles, Christchurch, 12 June) from: J Timu (Otago), M Cooper (Waikato); E Clarke (Auckland), F Bunce, W Little (North Harbour), V Tuigamala; G Fox (Auckland), A Strachan (North Harbour), J Preston (Wellington); C Dowd (Auckland), M Allen (Taranaki), S Fitzpatrick (Auckland, capt), G Dowd (North Harbour), O Brown, R Brooke (Auckland), M Cooksley (Counties), I Jones (North Auckland), J Joseph (Otago), Z Brooke (Auckland), A Pene (Otago), M Jones (Auckland).
International tour news,
Sporting Digest, page 39
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