Four changes made by Lions’ selectors

Press, 30 June 1983, Page 32

Four changes made by Lions’ selectors

NZPA staff correspondent Dunedin The selectors of the British Isles rugby team held the longest discussion of the New Zealand tour yesterday before naming their side to meet the All Blacks in the crucial test match at Carisbrook on Saturday. The team, changed in four positions from that which lost 9-0 to New Zealand in the second test two weeks ago, was named in Dunedin late yesterday afternoon after an intensive period of deliberation in which the fate of several test players hung in a tenuous balance.

The task of selectors, Willie John Mcßride, Jim Telfer, and Ciaran Fitzgerald, was always bound to be a hard one after the tourists’ failure to win either the first or second test matches with different lineups. It was .made harder by the loss to Canterbury on Tuesday in a match which

appeared to decide the fate of many players on the fringe of selection.

Discussions between the selectors had begun in Christchurch that evening, breaking up without agreement.

When the team was announced, three second test players, two of them backs, found themselves the victims of their own poor form or of a clear and crucial change in the Lions’ tactical policy. Out went the backline which performed with obvious inefficiency at Athletic Park and in its place the selectors had installed the back division which played against North Auckland last Saturday — the combination which the selectors believe is their most potent attacking unit. Out from the fullback berth goes Hugo Mac Neill, a player who performed adequately in the first two internationals, but has been

unable to muster obvious self-confidence. In his place Gwyn Evans has been installed, always gallant on defence and, to this point, one of the Lions’ most effective attacking backs. Out goes David Irwin at centre being replaced at second five eighths by John Rutherford.

Technical questions over whether the Lions will continue their tactical twocentre game in the coming international are as yet unanswered. Rutherford used the ploy with Kiernan against North Auckland, although he outwardly favours remaining at second five-eighths throughout the match.

The forward pack against the All Blacks on Saturday bears two changes. The lock, Steve Bainbridge, joins the team to fill the gap left by the injury of Bob Norster.

The critical selection change in the forwards,

however, comes in the backrow where the open side flanker, Jim Calder, replaces John O’Driscoll on the blind side. Calder has been continually impressive on this tour, standing out in the second phase where the Lions have encountered so many problems. Like Rutherford and Kiernan alternating in midfield, Calder and Peter Winterbottom will play an open and blind side game, Winterbottom patrolling the back of the tourists’ lineout and the right side of its scrum. The team is:— Gwyn Evans, John Carleton, Michael Kiernan, John Rutherford, Roger Baird, Ollie Campbell, Roy Laidlaw, lain Paxton, Peter Winterbottom, Maurice Colclough, Steve Bainbridge, Jim Calder, Staff Jones, Ciaran Fitzgerald (captain), Graham Price. Reserves: Steve Smith, Hugo Mac Neill, Robert Ackerman, Colin Deans, lain Milne, 'John Beattie.