Healey on standby to switch roles for Lions

Chris Hewett
Thursday 12 July 2001 00:00 BST
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Jonny Wilkinson's powers of recovery appear to border on the miraculous. Four days after being taken off on a stretcher at the Colonial Stadium in Melbourne, deposited in an ambulance and whisked off to the nearest orthopaedic ward, the Newcastle outside-half and celebrated goal-kicking wunderkind was named in a largely familiar British Isles Test line-up for the third and final set-to with the Wallabies at Stadium Australia on Saturday. "He is not 100 per cent fit right now," Graham Henry, the Lions coach admitted, "but he will be by kick-off time."

All of which sat easily with the prognosis offered by the miracle worker himself, Dr Jim Robson, who spent the best part of two days laying hands on Wilkinson after the player had suffered a worryingly severe injury to his lower left leg during the second half of the record second Test defeat. Robson had predicted on Tuesday that the first-choice stand-off would be ready for action come the weekend, and he is far too shrewd a judge to stake his reputation on a long-odds bet.

But there remains a degree of suspicion that Wilkinson will not start the game – or, at least, start it in a state of optimum fitness. If he fails to make it at all, Austin Healey is likely to move from the right wing, where he has displaced Dafydd James, and play 10 for the second time in a 38-cap Test career. The Lions would then have three options. They could recall James, despite his offensive and defensive lapses in Melbourne; they could give Iain Balshaw, low on confidence but high on pace, a start in his club position; or, most intriguingly, they might shift Rob Henderson from midfield to wing, and gamble on Will Greenwood at inside centre. Needless to say, Henry was not eager to discuss these possibilities yesterday.

"Wilkinson is very important to the cause. He's a world-class outside-half and it is a major bonus being able to name him in the side," the coach said. "He has done some kicking in training and he ran the attacking line for part of the session. I'd say he is getting through a lot more work than the medical staff would like, but then, it is natural that they should want to hold him back. I'm very confident he will be ready for the Test."

Henry made three changes to the Melbourne line-up, two of them enforced. Richard Hill, knocked out of contention in more ways than one by the Wallaby centre Nathan Grey, is replaced on the blind-side flank by Martin Corry, who should not have been omitted from the second Test XV anyway. Meanwhile, Matthew Dawson takes over at scrum-half from Rob Howley, whose ribs failed to survive the Wallaby assault at the Colonial Stadium. The only voluntary move is the introduction of Healey, who has stamped his prodigious personality on this tour despite falling victim to his own versatility.

"Austin could give us another dimension," said Henry, full of admiration for his most determinedly outspoken tourist, despite being the target of many of Healey's verbal depth charges. "He sparks the team, he creates and he gets people playing. He has energy and imagination. Against the Brumbies, he scored two tries and saved another two with his cover tackling. There is a strong English contingent on the coaching staff, and they believe he can handle himself on the wing in a match of this magnitude. I'm happy to go with that."

The selectors took a hard look at the front-row trio, who did not cover themselves in glory in Melbourne, and were close to promoting Darren Morris, the gifted but rather conciliatory prop from Swansea. Instead, Henry picked Morris on the bench, ahead of a disappointed Jason Leonard. Greenwood, the Harlequins centre who has not played since damaging ankle ligaments against New South Wales two and a half weeks ago, and Ronan O'Gara, the inexperienced Irish outside-half, are also among the replacements, as is the Welsh flanker Colin Charvis, back in the equation after a two-match suspension. They replace Corry, Dawson and the demoted Neil Jenkins.

In the Wallaby camp, concern over Steve Larkham grew more acute yesterday when the Brumbies outside-half failed to train for the second successive session. Larkham is suffering from nerve trouble in his upper arm and is considered a major doubt for the Test. Elton Flatley, of Queensland, is standing by.

* The Irish lock Malcolm O'Kelly has become the latest member of the Lions party to criticise the tour management in a newspaper column. O'Kelly, left out of the squad for all three Tests, said members of the midweek side felt they had been overlooked from the start. "One can't help feeling that the Test team had been pencilled in from the very start, that management were oblivious to whatever the rest of the squad was trying to do," he wrote in the Irish Independent yesterday.

LIONS (v Australia, Third Test, Sydney, Saturday): M Perry (Bath & England); A Healey (Leicester & England), B O'Driscoll (Leinster & Ireland), R Henderson (Munster & Ireland), J Robinson (Sale & England); J Wilkinson (Newcastle & England), M Dawson (Northampton & England); T Smith (Northampton & Scotland), K Wood (Harlequins & Ireland), P Vickery (Gloucester & England), M Johnson (Leicester & England, capt), D Grewcock (Bath & England), M Corry (Leicester & England), N Back (Leicester & England), S Quinnell (Llanelli & Wales). Replacements: D Morris (Swansea & Wales), D West (Leicester & England), C Charvis (Swansea & Wales), M Williams (Cardiff & Wales), R O'Gara (Munster & Ireland), W Greenwood (Harlequins & England), I Balshaw (Bath & England).

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