Donal Lenihan, Capetown

BY MAKING five changes to the starting line up for the second test, the Lions management have put their hands up and accepted they got it wrong last weekend. Nowhere is this more striking than in the makeup of the front five who were physically pummelled in Durban.
The change around in fortunes for Phil Vickery and Lee Mears is even more pointed where neither even makes the bench after being deemed good enough to start last Saturday. While Adam Jones and Matthew Rees were virtual certainties to start after the positive impact they made off the bench, the promotion of Andrew Sheridan and Ross Ford is a tacit admission that in this country, size is everything. It also offers confirmation to what we had suspected all along in that most of the early provincial games only camouflaged weaknesses in the Lions tight five.
Mears, a committed and industrious forward, earned his place in the opening test side primarily because his accuracy come line out time was so much better than either Rees or Ford. What are the odds now that by shoring up the problems at the scrum, the Lions lineout is set to suffer. Simon Shaw’s inclusion for a first test start twelve years after he was seen as a shoo-in to partner Martin Johnson is very much a case of big man wanted. After impressing when introduced at the ABSA stadium, Donnacha O Callaghan has a right to feel aggrieved on losing out altogether on the match day squad.
Luke Fitzgerald has been rewarded for his patience and consistency after a series of good showings not least his defensive solidity against the Emerging Springboks. Ugo Moyne, whose defensive attributes have always been called into question, was picked initially as a finisher. Having been presented with three definite opportunities to score in Durban and converting none, he was on borrowed time.
With seven Irishmen in the starting team, the side is representative of where the European silverware has ended up this season. Expect a backlash, however, from the English media if things don’t go to plan.

By making so many changes, Ian McGeechan is making a last throw of the dice. Let’s hope his numbers come up.