Hill replaces injured Moody

CLIVE WOODWARD’S decision to ratchet up the intensity of Lions training sessions has come at a price after Lewis Moody was ruled out of contention for this weekend’s game against Otago in Dunedin.

The Leicester and England flanker had been named as a replacement for this morning’s clash with Wellington at the Westpac Stadium, but he was yesterday forced to withdraw from the bench after sustaining a knock to his left knee during training in Christchurch on Monday.

The joint stiffened overnight and Moody’s place in the squad was taken by Richard Hill.

Should Moody miss out at the weekend he would have just one game, the midweek encounter with Southland, to stake a further claim to a place in the Test 22. Head coach Woodward is set to name his side for the first Test in Christchurch the following day.

The official line was that Moody’s injury would continue to be monitored over the next couple of days, but Lions midweek coach Gareth Jenkins declared otherwise yesterday when he said: “Lewis Moody is not in the selection process for Saturday. We’ll look at him again on Monday.

“You’re going to get bumps in training. Lewis’s is a fresh injury and you’re bound to have injuries.

“If you start to worry about injuries you’ll be in an institution. That’s why we’re carrying a big squad. There are other (number) sevens out there.”

Test front row hopeful Andy Sheridan is another with injury problems.

The England prop was yellow carded just before half-time in Hamilton on Saturday for throwing a retaliatory punch at a New Zealand Maori and when his 10 minutes in the sin bin was up he failed to reappear.

Just before his moment of indiscipline, though, he seemed to hurt his ankle as he was tackled, although Woodward insisted on Saturday night that he had not been injured and it had always been his intention to replace Sheridan with Gethin Jenkins.

Again, though, a different story emerged when Sheridan watched Monday’s public training session in Christchurch with his ankle strapped, hobbling along the sidelines to sign autographs for young Lions fans.

Jenkins said that Sheridan was being kept off his ankle but the injury was not a serious concern and the prop would be subject to a daily appraisal of his fitness.

“There’s nothing to be overly concerned about apart from rest and treatment,” he added.

The Lions problems with the New Zealand style of play at the breakdown and the interpretation of the laws by southern hemisphere referees were again at the forefront of questions put to the Llanelli coach during a pre-match press conference in Wellington.

Woodward had said he was going to increase the level of training in order to get his squad battle-hardened for the tough tour matches ahead and the Test series.

Some players are thought to have even requested a return to live scrummage practice rather than pushing against the scrummaging machine during training, although this request was turned down.

Regarding the breakdown, the Lions have introduced nets parallel to the ground and about four feet above pitch level at their training sessions as they work on keeping players’ bodies lower to the ground at rucks.

Jenkins said: “We’ve tried to introduce more new things in training this week. We’re developing a new team as the Test matches are getting even closer. What we have got to do is look at the contact area and the contact dynamics, in training.

“It’s a realisation that we have to play the contact area so we’re using nets in training and approaching it that way in the hope we can improve it.

“But we won’t be introducing live scrimmaging; the past is the past and as far as we’re concerned it’s about what’s best for the tour.

“There are areas we need to cog up, the contact area in particular and that was highlighted in the game against the Maori.

There is work to do and our sessions have been concentrating on that.”

Jenkins added: “I’m not surprised by the intensity, it’s exciting not surprising. We realise every game is going to be a mini Test match.

“We are there to be got at and we’ve got to defend the jersey every time we put it on.”

Jenkins also said that the presence of Ireland’s former international referee David McHugh as a technical advisor on the Lions support staff had been a “quality asset” in getting a better insight into southern hemisphere refereeing.

“He’s making sure we’ve got a definite understanding of what’s happening by talking with the referees at their meetings,” he explained.

“It’s working and I think it’s being appreciated by the refs as well.”