Lions enter ‘danger zone’

PHIL VICKERY believes the British and Irish Lions have reached “a very dangerous time” of their South Africa tour.

Vickery, England’s 2007 World Cup final skipper, will captain the unbeaten Lions in today’s clash against Western Province at Newlands.

The first Test appointment with world champions South Africa is just eight days away, and anticipation of that three-game series has gone up a notch with Lions fans now starting to arrive in escalating numbers.

Vickery, though, knows his team cannot be distracted by what awaits in Durban next week as they prepare to tackle possibly their toughest opponents so far.

The Western Province line-up, led by number eight Luke Watson, features four Springboks, while a crowd of around 50,000 will guarantee the Lions a white-hot welcome.

“Purely from a personal point of view, I think we are at a very dangerous time of the tour,” said Vickery.

“The big realisation for me was arriving (in Cape Town) last night and probably for the first time seeing so many supporters here. We were talking to people at the airport and they were saying how the red army is on its way.

“The worrying thing for me, more than anything, is all the talk is of the Test next week, but we’ve got two games to go before then.

“There is everything to play for tomorrow. I want to make sure the guys go out and give no less than 100% and make it as difficult as possible for the coaches to select that (Test) team. I don’t want to be remembered as the first captain to lead a

Lions team to defeat on this tour to South Africa. It is a great honour; it probably hasn’t yet sunk in, but it will, no doubt.

“There is a big buzz around the camp, it’s a great squad and I’m not saying that for the sake of saying it. I feel privileged to be named as captain.”

Vickery leads a team that includes Ireland’s Rob Kearney, Tommy Bowe, Keith Earls, and Donncha O’Callaghan. Gordon D’Arcy is one of the seven replacements.

Lions coach Ian McGeechan has no hesitation in proclaiming that Vickery would be a worthy captain of this particular side. “His credentials are huge, he has captained England and he is also a hell of a player,” said the coach yesterday.

He went on: “He was on the Lions tour to

Australia in 2001 and is a very proud guy; I think his contribution to the Lions merits him being given an opportunity to lead this team out.”

McGeechan insisted that it was still all to play for in terms of selection for the opening Test; his philosophy is certainly one of trying to keep South Africa guessing.

“We would like to think that we haven’t shown our full hand, but I honestly don’t believe we have got to the point where the Test side is chosen. There is a lot to play for against Western Province, and a lot to play for on Tuesday as well (against Southern Kings in Port Elizabeth).

“I have said all along that we have to give every player an opportunity to push for a place in the Test side; we are trying to do that and it will take six games for us to be able to assess the situation — this is the shortest ever build-up to a Lions Test series, and we have got to make sure we explore every possible avenue to produce the best team capable of winning a series against the world champions.

“It’s our challenge, it is my challenge and I’m not being fair to the players unless I give them those opportunities. I would be letting down the players if I didn’t give them that chance. It is a difficult environment, we know that; it has been a case where we had to say to ourselves ‘lets make the most of these six games leading into this first Test.’

“We’re in an unusual situation in that Tuesday’s match could still settle some issues; people have said that the game with Western Province is a final trial, but it is more than that. Because of the time scale, we’re looking at two games where we need to have everyone out on the pitch performing and, to be fair, some of the guys have been waiting to get that second game of the tour under their belts. We have to be fair to them as well and give them an opportunity for the next few weeks.”

McGeechan is happy with the work in progress. “We’re working hard so that we can inter-change if it is required. We’re not doing anything different, just working away so that people can slot in and out as required; it’s all about building up a system.

“I don’t want easy decisions next week; I want to be sitting down on Tuesday night knowing that I have been challenged as a coach and as a selector. We’re not far off track right now; we haven’t done huge amounts of research on the opposition, we have tended to concentrate on ourselves. That will obviously change for the Test series, but for now we have to think only of building momentum going into that series. We have kept things pretty simple, tried not to complicate the issues by looking at the opposition, but we will have a very clear picture of what we need to do against the Springboks.”