Mauled Lions to change front row

BRITISH and Irish Lions forwards coach Graham Rowntree has admitted that the number of scrum penalties conceded in Saturday’s first Test with South Africa will force changes for the second Test.

Neither was Rowntree satisfied with the quality of defence in the face of South Africa’s driving maul. Qualifying for one of the tour’s great understatements, the England man declared: “That, allied to the problems we encountered in the scrum, gave us a bit of a mountain to climb.”

Rowntree accepted that the changes made to the front row, the introduction of Adam Jones for Phil Vickery and of Matthew Rees for Lee Mears, sorted out the scrum problem.