Drico weighs up Wallabies danger men

Brian O’Driscoll fully expects to see mercurial out-half Quade Cooper trot out to stare down the Lions in Australia although the prospects of Kurtley Beale doing likewise look less favourable given the Melbourne Rebel has been suspended again.

The versatile Beale has been ruled out of tomorrow’s Super Rugby fixture against the Blues in Auckland due to what has been termed a breach of behavioural guidelines just one match into a return from a suspension incurred for an earlier incident in South Africa.

Cooper, for his part, was recently omitted from a two-day Wallaby camp called by coach Robbie Deans with whom he has had well-publicised issues, but it is symptomatic of Australia’s abundance of riches behind the scrum that even the absence of both men – and the injured Berrick Barnes — would not be deemed fatal to their chances of a series win.