Warren Gatland sticks with winning formula for deciding Test

They got the British & Irish Lions over the finish line in Wellington to keep this Test series with the All Blacks alive, now Warren Gatland has backed the same players to go out and make history in the decider at Eden Park on Saturday.

Head coach Gatland last night did something he has for months guarded against when his thoughts turned to the final game of a brutal 10-game tour schedule by naming an unchanged starting line-up and replacements bench for the third and final Test.

Only five players have been forced out of the 41-man squad through injury over the past six weeks, Ireland centre Jared Payne the most recent of them on Thursday after suffering from a migraine and while there is huge element of good fortune in the fitness profile of this group, Gatland will take some satisfaction that his planning efforts have been rewarded through to the very last game. For all the flak he received over the so-called Geography Six, the half-dozen players drafted in purely as largely unused bench cover for the final two midweek tour games, to be able to name an unchanged matchday 23 for the most important match of the lot is kudos to the management of this squad.