Eager Lions won’t show mercy

The British & Irish Lions face their weakest opposition in Combined Country today but with the first Test against Australia looming there is too much at stake for this squad to expect any deceleration from the players.

Head coach Warren Gatland has just 11 days and only three games left before his Lions meet the Wallabies in Brisbane on June 22 with the pressure on his players to perform and stake a claim to starting berth allied to the need for the collective to continue building momentum and cohesion make this just as important a fixture for the tourists as any of the others.

So while Hunter Stadium has seen upsets before, with Scotland beating the Australians here in a gale 12 months ago, it will not see another today.

This may have the echoes of a potential, FA Cup-style giant killing but the only romance here is the old-fashioned nature of this game as a sepia-toned bygone of tours past.

The Combined Country, an invitational side gathered from the country rugby clubs of Queensland and New South Wales and populated with eight fringe Super Rugby squad members and an assortment of lower division players, is a noble concept deserving of a spot on the Lions’ tour schedule. For Gatland and his coaches’ purposes, though, the potential cricket score will be an irrelevance.

As defence coach Andy Farrell said yesterday, the result will be a byproduct of how far this squad has progressed after two weeks on tour together.

“It’s about us getting better at what we’ve worked on,” Farrell said. “We’re trying to add and add and add and there’s things coming out of games and we’ve got to make sure that we keep developing. That’s the main thing. The score will take care of itself if that happens.”

Most intriguing about this contest will be the performance of rookie fly-half and youngest 2013 Lion Stuart Hogg, the Glasgow and Scotland full-back, who wears the number 10 jersey, allowing Owen Farrell and Jonny Sexton rest up ahead of stiffer challenges to come.

It may fill Lions supporters with apprehension and opposing coaches may focus on a potential weak link but Andy Farrell has the utmost faith in the 20-year-old as a playmaker.

“He’s got a lot of experience around him who will help him out a lot but just watching the kid in training today, it was his first run dictating to the boys on his inside and outside and he’s been great.

“He’s doing what a fly-half should do, dictating, putting them in the right place, but he’s got X factor as well. He’s got a long kicking game, he’s been good at kicking the posts in training and his passing and running game is exceptional.

“He needs to make sure he doesn’t confuse himself too much, by trying to facilitate all the time and bring his natural game to the party.”

Still, it was put to Farrell, it is a big ask of Hogg to play in an unfamiliar position while donning a Lions jersey.

“If you understand what he’s about and what his make-up is, he wants to get in there at first receiver, even as a full-back. An organiser, putting people in place, that’s what he naturally does and if you talk to people that have coached him more than most that’s what they would tell you exactly the same.

“It’s exciting for him, it’s exciting for us and I think he’s going to do a great job.”

As Farrell said, Hogg will have some heavyweight support around him, not least from a back row of Sean O’Brien, Justin Tipuric and Jamie Heaslip and an established Lions Test midfield pairing of Jamie Roberts and matchday captain Brian O’Driscoll. Never mind the width of the victory, feel the quality.