Loss of Luger is body blow to depleted Lions

Shortly before Dan Luger visited a specialist in Manly yesterday, he was confident that his first Lions tour was still a going concern. "It could be worse; I could be on a flight home," shrugged the Harlequins wing and Test certainty when asked about the facial injury he had suffered in a training collision with Neil Back. An hour later, Luger was organising... a flight home. Two small fractures in his right eye socket left him contemplating what might have been, and left the management in a serious quandary over their back-line selection.

Tyrone Howe, the 30-year-old Ulsterman who impressed at European and international levels last season, was summoned as the fourth replacement of a tour still only three weeks and four matches old. The carnage is beginning to resemble one of those Agatha Christie mysteries in which characters are abruptly removed from the plot at regular intervals. Simon Taylor, Phil Greening and Mike Catt have been replaced by Martin Corry, Gordon Bulloch and Scott Gibbs. At this rate, the 1980 record of eight replacements will be under threat within a fortnight.

"Three of the injured players were hurt on the training field, which is disappointing, but I see no reason to review our approach to match preparation," said Donal Lenihan, the manager. "These are freak injuries. I saw the incident with Dan, and there was nothing anyone could have done about it, apart from make Neil Back about three inches taller. I feel for Dan, but we have other quality wings in the squad. One man's misfortune is another's opportunity, and the door is open. The next two games, against New South Wales and New South Wales Country, will be critical."

In some respects, the decision to call for a left-sided specialist such as Howe was surprising: leaving aside Iain Balshaw, who is viewed primarily as a full-back anyway, the Lions have no natural right wing at their disposal. But Luger had been written into the Test team as a left wing, which is the more taxing of the two positions from a defensive point of view. Intriguingly, the rugby league refugee Jason Robinson is now in pole position for a start against the Wallabies in Brisbane tomorrow week.

If the Lions are concerned about their back-three combination, they are even more anxious about the refereeing. "There are interpretative difficulties, especially at the scrummage," admitted Andy Robinson, the assistant coach. "We have placed a great deal of emphasis on that area, and we're a little worried that we appear to be moving towards a rugby league style of scrum, which basically means the set-piece is uncontestable. In the northern hemisphere, teams are allowed to scrummage. It's different here, that's for sure. We weren't allowed to scrummage at all against Australia A on Tuesday."

The Lions will get no sympathy from the locals. Having squealed about the tourists' supposed rough-house tactics in Queensland, the Australians are now accusing them of a systematic flouting of the rules at scrum, ruck and maul. "If the Lions carry on as playing as they did against Australia A, they'll get refereed out of the series," pronounced Bob Dwyer, whose New South Wales Waratahs confront Martin Johnson and company at the Sydney Football Stadium tomorrow. "On Tuesday, some of them seemed to think they could get away with anything. I think they'd rather be penalised than let the opposition have quick ball."

Dwyer loves all this, of course. The old tease coached one of the greatest of all Wallaby sides to an exhilarating World Cup triumph in 1991, but also guided streetwise Leicester and Bristol sides who would never have conceded quick possession in a month of Sundays. "I think the Lions were flustered on Tuesday," he said, knowingly.

"When the things they thought would happen didn't, they got fancy. And when the fancy stuff failed, a few reputations were dented."

Dwyer intends to dent a few more in front of 35,000 Sydneysiders tomorrow.