LIONS PACK HOLDS KEY

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31107, 9 July 1966, Page 17

LIONS PACK HOLDS KEY

(By Our Rugby Reporter J

The tremendous improvement in the tight play of their forwards in the last week should mean that the Lions will face Northland today with greater confidence.

The 80 minutes at Rotorua, when the Lions forwards took on the Bay of Plenty pack and gave it a drubbing in the lineouts and tight play, perhaps may have been the turning point of the tour.

Now the Lions should know that New Zealand forwards are human after all. The team chosen to play Northland is a shadowy, rather than shadow test team. The pack will be very close to that which will play at Dunedin but the backs, and more particularly the wings McFadyean and Savage, probably are not the final choice. FORMIDABLE The Lions should win. Their pack, with Campbell-Lamer-ton and Price gaining possession in the line-outs, Pask, Telfer and Lamont as vigorous and intelligent loose forwards, and Norris and Powell to graft in the tight, is a formidable one. But they will have their problems in quelling the Northland pack, whicL, if it does not contain many notable names, has those battlescarred veterans, Hull, Cook. Deans and Hewitt, who caused the Springboks so much bother last season. And they caused the South African manager (Mr J. F. Louw) enigmatically to ask if ’’the Treaty of Waitangi had really been signed.” Probably the Northland backs are stronger than their forwards. They have the capable Going brothers—S. Going at half-back and K. Going at full-back; the experienced Thompson in mid-field, and the fine wing prospect. Panther, who will be watched closely by the New Zealand selectors. JONES AT FAULT The Lions have again placed Gibson at centre and his combination with the mercurial Jones, who has not lived up to his Australian reputation as a “Rugby great,” will be watched with interest. Jones is a brilliant attacking player but so far has only shown this in loose play. From set play he has been most indifferent and his defence very wayward. Gibson's thoughtful play may bring out the best in Jones; if not, then the Lions could be in trouble, for they cannot at this stage of the tour tolerate weaknesses in the mid-field. The key to the Lions’ performance'today will lie with the halves. Young and Watkins. Young, far more than Watkins’s Welsh team-mate, Lewis, has shown an apprecia-

tion of how to deal with the rumbustious New Zealand forwards.

If he can provide swift and sure passes, Watkins’s attacking genius could bring the Lions' back-line into full flower today. Teams:—

BRITISH ISLES.— S. Wilson; C. W. McFadyean, D. K. Jones C. M. H. Gibson, K. F. Savage; D. Watkins. R. M. Young; A. E I. Pask: R. A. Lamont, M. J Campbell-Lamerton (captain) B Price, J. W. Telfer; D. L. Powell, K. W. Kennedy, C. H Norris.

NORTHLAND: K. T. Going; D R. Panther, P. Younger, J. Fairburn; T. Wiki, E. J. Thompson, S. M. Going: B. Holmes; D. w. Hewitt, E. B. Dean, M. R. Hull (captain). M. Robinson; L. G. Cook, M. T. Reddy, R. Nicholas