British and Irish Lions vs Maori All Blacks as it happened: Tourists seize momentum ahead of first Test
Follow the game as it happened from the Rotorua International Stadium
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The British and Irish Lions face the Maori All Blacks in their fifth warm-up match on their tour of New Zealand in what will be their penultimate game before the Test series with the All Blacks. Follow the latest here.
- Maori All Blacks vs British and Irish Lions kicks off at 19:35 local time [08:35 BST]
- Warren Gatland recalls a number of Test candidates to face the Maori
- No Owen Farrell with fly-half ruled out through injury
- Johnny Sexton starts at 10, Peter O’Mahony captains the Lions with Sam Warburton on bench
- Maori All Blacks captained by Ash Dixon
- Nehe Milner-Skudder starts on wing, Tawera Kerr-Barlow and Reiko Ioane released by All Blacks
Follow the live action below...
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What time does it start?
The Maori All Blacks vs British and Irish Lions kicks off at 19:35 local time [08:35 BST] on Saturday 17 June.
What TV channel is it on?
The match will be shown live on sky Sports 1 from 08:00 BST.
Teams:
Maori All Blacks: James Lowe, Nehe Milner-Skudder, Matt Procter, Charlie Ngatai, Reiko Ioane; Damian McKenzie, Tawere Kerr-Barlow; Kane Hames, Ash Dixon, Ben May; Joe Wheeler, Tom Franklin; Akira Ioane, Elliot Dixon, Liam Messam.
Replacements: Hikawera Elliot, Chris Eves, Marcel Renata, Leighton Price, Kara Pryor, Bryn Hall, Ihaia West, Rob Thompson.
British and Irish Lions: Leigh Halfpenny; George North, Jonathan Davies, Ben Te’o, Anthony Watson; Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray; Mako Vunipola, Jamie George, Tadhg Furlong; Maro Itoje, George Kruis; Peter O’Mahony, Sean O’Brien, Taulupe Faletau.
Replacements: Ken Owens, Jack McGrath, Kyle Sinckler, Iain Henderson, Sam Warburton, Greig Laidlaw, Dan Biggar, Elliot Daly.
Hello, good morning Britain, good evening New Zealand and welcome to The Independent's live coverage of the New Zealand Maori against the Lions.
This is traditionally known as the 'unofficial fourth Test' and after the Maori's victory over the Lions in 2005, they will be desperate to repeat the feat in 2017.
The Lions are two wins from four so far this tour and desperately need to get back to winning ways with only seven days until the first Test.
In case you missed it
Ross Moriarty became the second Lion in a week to be ruled out of the rest of the tour after failing to recover from nerve damage in his back. The Welshman suffered it in the first game of the tour, which is disappointing given the promising performance he put in.
READ MORE:
New recruits
Warren Gatland has called up four Welshmen to the squad for the midweek game on Tuesday ahead of the first Test, so he is able to protect his Test 23.
Tomas Francis, Kristian Dacey, Cory Hill and Gareth Davies are all included with Scotland duo Allan Dell and Finn Russell are expected to be announced after the game today too.
READ MORE
TEAMS
Here's a reminder of the teams for today in Rotorua:
Maori All Blacks: James Lowe, Nehe Milner-Skudder, Matt Procter, Charlie Ngatai, Reiko Ioane; Damian McKenzie, Tawere Kerr-Barlow; Kane Hames, Ash Dixon, Ben May; Joe Wheeler, Tom Franklin; Akira Ioane, Elliot Dixon, Liam Messam.
Replacements: Hikawera Elliot, Chris Eves, Marcel Renata, Leighton Price, Kara Pryor, Bryn Hall, Ihaia West, Rob Thompson.
British and Irish Lions: Leigh Halfpenny; George North, Jonathan Davies, Ben Te’o, Anthony Watson; Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray; Mako Vunipola, Jamie George, Tadhg Furlong; Maro Itoje, George Kruis; Peter O’Mahony, Sean O’Brien, Taulupe Faletau.
Replacements: Ken Owens, Jack McGrath, Kyle Sinckler, Iain Henderson, Sam Warburton, Greig Laidlaw, Dan Biggar, Elliot Daly.
The team today is pretty much who you should be expecting to line up next weekend in the first Test against the All Blacks.
Farrell, if he recovers from injury, should start ahead of Sexton, with Warburton likely to come in at flanker.
Alun Wyn Jones may put some pressure on either Kruis or Itoje but this is likely to be as close as you will get.
Jack de Menezes reporting at the Rotorua International Stadium says:
It may still be classed as a warm-up game, but this match today has become a must-win for Warren Gatland, if only to help everyone to forget the furore around hi call-ups and allow preparations begin for the first Test. Four years ago, Gatland made a number of controversial call-ups for the game against the Brumbies, a match they went on to lose. Yet the Lions did exactly what Gatland wanted and won the first Test, and now no one remembers the Brumbies defeat. If he can pull off the same in New Zealand, no one will care one bit about who he called up.
Here we are, ready for the unofficial fourth Test. The New Zealand national anthem is ringing out around the Rotorua International Stadium.
As the Haka takes place, the rain pours down in Rotorua. The Lions struggled defensively on Tuesday in the pristine conditions in the Glasshouse but did well in similar weather last Saturday. Hopefully this will play into their hands again today.
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