Gatland expects return of Bowe to lift Test side

Tommy Bowe got the big build-up from Warren Gatland and, luckily for the British & Irish Lions, the Monaghan flier feels ready to hit the ground running in tomorrow’s second Test against Australia.

Having watched the Lions from the stands since breaking a bone in his right hand against the Queensland Reds on June 8, Bowe was understandably delighted yesterday to have been parachuted into the Test team just 21 days after undergoing surgery to stabilise a fractured metacarpal.

“He is a massive big-game player,” said Gatland. “He played in the centre in the third Test in 2009, and probably didn’t have his best tour, but if you watch him at training and see how seamless he is. The one thing you can’t coach is experience.

“Experienced players just come in and are able to slot in really quickly, and he did that on Tuesday morning. You could see the experience and quality was there, and that will give a boost to some of the other players.

“It was like George North being [passed] fit last week. It was a boost for the squad and the players around him.”

What a remarkable turnaround in fortunes it has been for the Ulster wing, who was met with ominous sympathy from medical staff who treated him pitchside and then sat in a Brisbane hospital that night and felt sufficiently gloomy to text his family the words “Game Over”.

That was until Lions and Ireland doctor Eanna Falvey got in touch with Brisbane-based orthopaedic surgeon Dr Peter Rowan, who changed the outlook.

“I was pretty much told it was curtains when I hurt my hand,” Bowe said.

“So I was pretty much, in the hospital, until Eanna Falvey called the surgeon and he was the one who said, ‘I’ve had rugby league guys coming back within three weeks, max’, so that was the shining light, the opportunity that there might be a chance to stay on.

“When I got that bit of information at quarter-to-12 at night, I was back in the hotel and it was a range of emotion; to go from the lows, thinking your tour is over so early into it, to thinking that you have a chance.

!I didn’t know whether I’d be back in time for the Test matches but there was always that opportunity and to get picked in it now is an even higher emotion.”

Bowe said he no longer feels pain, although there is occasional soreness, and he will wear a hurling glove tomorrow, specially dispatched from Ballincollig company Mycro Sportsgear to offer him an added layer of protection.

That would not be the first time a rugby player has sought comfort from a hurling glove and Bowe remembered Ulster and Ireland team-mate Andrew Trimble wearing a glove a couple of seasons ago when he fractured a bone in his hand.

“I remember Trimby wearing it and I chatted to Eanna Falvey. He said it was quite a similar injury to it and would work perfectly. I asked Andrew what the glove was and then Eanna knew the people who provided it back then... so we got in touch and they shifted it straight out to us from Ireland.”

Bowe has been training with the glove for the past week and said: “It feels good, hasn’t restricted it at all. It’s just a bit of padding. It’s not going to do anything good for me if I was to get a stamp directly on it but it’s just a bit of protection, more just a bit of padding.”

Alex Cuthbert, the wing Bowe replaces, nearly put a stop to his return when he scored a great try against the Wallabies in Brisbane, but the Welshman has to settle for a place on the bench tomorrow, placing further focus on Bowe.

“It is an enormous game and certainly after the performance last weekend,” Bowe said.

“It’s tough watching it and it’s going to be difficult after two weeks out, but I felt good how I played in the previous matches.

“I’ve trained with the boys the last week or so and I think that I’m definitely up to it.”