Lions want O’Connell to stay

A fractured arm may have sidelined Paul O’Connell from the rest of the Test series with Australia, his place in the second row for Saturday’s second Test going to England’s Geoff Parling, but the British & Irish Lions are desperate to keep their former captain on tour, so important to them is his presence as a leader and mentor.

Such is O’Connell’s gravitas within Warren Gatland’s squad that the injury he sustained during the first Test victory over the Wallabies in Brisbane last Saturday has ramifications for tour morale just as much off the field as it does on it.

O’Connell, the Lions said, suffered an “undisplaced fracture of his lower right arm” which had been confirmed by a specialist in Brisbane yesterday before the tourists left for Melbourne ahead of the second Test.