McGeechan not to replace Shanklin

Ian McGeechan confirmed he will not be replacing injured centre Tom Shanklin as the 2009 British and Irish Lions squad met for the first time today without two other significant names.

Alan Quinlan remained in Ireland awaiting his appeal against the 12-week suspension he received last week for making contact with the eye area of Leinster’s Leo Cullen.

And Northampton refused to release Scotland prop Euan Murray for a five-hour session of handshakes, introductions, planning and sponsors commitments.

Shanklin was ruled out of the South Africa tour after suffering a dislocated shoulder and McGeechan’s decision will come as a disappointment to potential replacements such as Delon Armitage and Gordon D’Arcy.

McGeechan had originally named a 37-man squad to cover the possibility of 14 Lions being involved in Saturday’s Heineken Cup final if Munster and Cardiff had both reached Murrayfield.

But with only five Lions involved in Leinster’s clash with Leicester on Saturday, McGeechan decided he would trim the party back down to help accelerate the squad’s development.

The Lions only have six games before the first Test and McGeechan said: “With the short run-up to that first Test it is getting that balance to give players game time.

“The way it has fallen with the European Cup final it has allowed us to free up a few other players, particularly in that 13 channel.

“Luke Fitzgerald and Keith Earls can play there and we knew that when we picked the squad.

“I didn’t see the necessity to bring someone else out at 13 without giving the opportunity to the players that we have got. By going back to 36 players it does up the game time for some of them.”

Instead, it is the European Challenge Cup final on Friday night that has caused the headache with Northampton invoking their right not to release Murray outside of a Test week.

The Saints, who face Bourgoin at The Stoop on Friday night, were informed of the Lions’ request in a letter from the Rugby Football Union last October.

But Premier Rugby advised Northampton not to make Murray available and so he missed out, among other things, on the Lions’ official photograph.

Leicester were in the same boat regarding Harry Ellis but the England scrum-half was made available to join up with the Lions.

“We are very disappointed and the Lions are talking to the RFU on this matter,” said Lions manager Gerald Davies, who only discovered this morning that Murray would not be appearing.

“We informed each union back in the autumn what our plans were for this week. At that stage no-one responded to say they disagreed with it.

“We did say we would like all the players available for Monday. We emphasised there would be no training and by 6pm the players involved in those competitions would be released back to their clubs and regions.”

Quinlan confirmed today he has lodged an appeal after being suspended until September following an incident with Cullen in the Heineken Cup semi-final.

The independent panel is expected to meet on Wednesday.

McGeechan has already identified a potential replacement – believed to be Leicester and England flanker Tom Croft – although the player is yet to be informed.

An independent disciplinary committee decided last week that Quinlan’s offence was “low range” in terms of its seriousness.

The Lions squad leave for Johannesburg next Sunday. Their opening game is against a Royal XV in Rustenburg on May 30.

The tour will be played under a revised law-book after the International Rugby Board brought forward its implementation from August.

The Lions had been set to play under the experimental laws (ELV) in force this season which, among other things, allowed mauls to be pulled down and no limit to numbers in the lineout.

Those ELVs were rejected by the IRB last week and the Lions will now have the maul as part of their armoury against the Springboks.

“We didn’t know it was going to change. This is an opportunity for us to have a real crack at it because from May 30 everyone will play under the same laws,” said McGeechan.

“We wouldn’t have picked anyone different in the squad – and the players we have picked are not bad in the maul!”