Henry's fight for the soul of his party

Hints of divisions within as midweek defeat exposes a gulf between the best and the rest

If verbal contracts are not worth the paper they are written on, as dear old Sam Goldwyn once suggested, the Lions may find themselves in a heap of trouble over the next three weeks. Graham Henry made one or two comments in the wake of Tuesday night's demoralising misfire against a team of second-string Wallabies in Gosford that jarred on the ear and threatened to alienate almost 50 per cent of the largest party in the 113-year history of British Isles touring. Unless the coach now makes the right noises and convinces the so-called "dirt-trackers" that they still have a reason to exist, the squad will inevitably divide along "us and them" lines.

A fractured squad generally equals an unsuccessful one, as the Lions visits to New Zealand in 1977, 1983 and 1993 demonstrated. The trip eight years ago is the most useful comparison, for three of the current party – Martin Johnson, Jason Leonard and the new arrival, Scott Gibbs – were involved then. The split that developed between the élite team and the rest not only contributed to a 2-1 defeat in the Tests but, just as damagingly, reduced the midweek XV to laughing-stock status. Their job was to stand up and be counted against the likes of Hawkes Bay and Waikato. Instead, they forgot about being counted and settled for 80 minutes of stand-up.

When Henry said in Gosford that his only realistic option was to concentrate purely on the Test team, he dipped his headmasterly toe in dangerous waters. Twenty-four hours earlier, Leonard had painted a positive picture of tour harmony that would subsequently take on an ironic tint.

"Everyone is involved, everyone feels they have something to contribute towards the common goal," said the venerable Harlequins prop. "To my mind, that is the single most crucial aspect of a Lions tour. Once a group of players feel they are being pushed to one side or ignored, problems are not far around the corner. Those of us who toured New Zealand in 1993 learnt that lesson and acted upon it in South Africa in '97. I'm happy to say we are continuing down the same road on this occasion." One defeat later, the inclusive approach was history.

In fairness to Henry, whose waspish approach to man-management contrasts sharply with that of his celebrated predecessor, Ian McGeechan, this campaign poses unique problems. The limited supply of quality non-Test opposition in Australia ensured a short tour by Lions standards – the shortest ever, in fact – and once the selectors had decided to take 37 players on the 10-match trip, starting places were always going to be rarer than radium. Additionally, the television-driven evening kick-offs effectively guaranteed that the midweek games would be played on a Tuesday, rather than the traditional Wednesday. "We had no choice," Donal Lenihan, the manager, explained last week. "A Wednesday-night match would have interfered with our Saturday planning. As a result, the midweek boys have only one serious training session together. It's hard for them."

Hard indeed, and Henry made it harder still with his caustic reaction to Tuesday's defeat. Suddenly, the fringe players felt they were not even that any more, that they were out of sight and out of mind. Take Colin Charvis, the Swansea flanker, as an example. Charvis has started only once, against the Queensland President's XV in Towns-ville – a game he dominated to such an extent that he pocketed the official man-of-the-match award. On the basis of that performance, some pundits started talking him up as a live contender for a place in the Test back-row.

Fat chance. Since leaving Barrier Reef territory, Charvis has been restricted to a couple of brief runs off the bench. Unless injuries kick in, his tour is in free-fall. And professional sportsmen do not like being in freefall, especially when they believe they have answered all the questions asked of them.

It is, then, essential that the Lions management get to grips with what might be described as their pastoral duties and treat the remaining midweek games against an under-baked New South Wales Country XV and a depleted ACT Brumbies as must-win affairs, matches that count for something more than merely the fulfilment of a fixture list that always looked too lightweight by half.

The "other" Lions deserve some reward for the oceans of blood, sweat and tears they have shed on training paddocks the length and breadth of the island continent – even if that reward is nothing more tangible than public support. More than most, Lenihan knows this to be true. Twelve years ago, the success of "Donal's Donuts" – the midweek side captained by the likeable Irishman – was central to the 2-1 Test victory over the Wallabies.

Henry has his Test team in mind, but the training collision between Dan Luger and Neil Back that put the former out of the tour with a busted eye socket emphasised the vulnerability of the coach's best-laid plans. It is all very well assuming that the basic drills of scrummage, line-out and restart will hang together with Johnson, Keith Wood, Danny Grewcock and Lawrence Dallaglio in the side, but what happens if one or more of that quartet should fall on stony ground? The back-up locks – Scott Murray of Scotland and the two Irishmen, Malcolm O'Kelly and Jeremy Davidson – are not in the best of nick, and they are not among the happiest tourists either. The same goes for Neil Jenkins and Ronan O'Gara, the outside-half understudies to Jonny Wilkinson. It is not for reasons of social harmony that Henry needs to rekindle a few spent spirits, although that would be a legitimate aim in itself. It is for reasons of survival.

Contrastingly, the Wallabies understand the value of inclusiveness. When Rod Macqueen, the head coach, omits a player from his Test squad – Jim Williams, the Brumbies' No 8, and Phil Waugh, the New South Wales flanker, are good examples – that player invariably sharpens up his act. Williams, who might reasonably have expected to face the Lions in the First Test in Brisbane on Saturday, faced them on Tuesday night instead, and played magnificently. Waugh, quite outstanding in this year's Super 12, was every bit as brilliant at the North Power Stadium.

Four years ago in South Africa, the Lions lost a key player, the Welsh scrum-half Rob Howley, prior to the first Test, and another, the Llanelli wing Ieuan Evans, just before the second. McGeechan's relaxed and sympathetic approach allowed him the luxury of incorporating replacements from a midweek side that may have been the most closely-knit outfit ever to wear the red shirt. Over the next few days, Henry would do well to buy his fringe players a beer or six and tell them how good they are.