A pain in the neck for Lions squad selectors

By CHRIS HEWETT

Lions squads used to be unveiled amid the port-and-cigar splendour of the East India Club by moustached British Raj types who always dressed for dinner and never read a newspaper until it had been ironed.

Professionalism changed all that. Today, Donal Lenihan and Graham Henry will name their 37-strong party for the three-test tour of Australia at a modern, business-friendly hotel near Heathrow.

Unless, that is, the selectors decide to cut their losses and make their announcement from an orthopaedic ward.

Injuries, not least the series of neck-jarring impacts inflicted on Jonny Wilkinson during Newcastle's European Shield defeat by Harlequins at Headingley on Sunday, have made the debate considerably more complicated.

When the selectors embark on their final deliberations - the successful players will be informed by telephone - they will be faced with the uncomfortable fact that some of their assumptions, particularly over goal-kicking, no longer hold true.

There is no guarantee that Wilkinson, the obvious test first five-eighths if fit, will be in one piece by the time the Lions hit Brisbane for their opening scrap with the Wallabies on June 30.

His neck condition, which has the potential to put him into a spasm every time he mistimes a tackle, is a far greater cause for concern than his coaches and advisers care to admit.

Three premature departures in as many club games since the start of the month is not an encouraging record.

Wilkinson is not alone in this: England's two tighthead props, Phil Vickery and Julian White, also have issues with various neck muscles, and the demands of scrummaging on hard Southern Hemisphere grounds will not help their cause, or that of the Lions.

But Wilkinson, who has been suffering from neck problems since he wore the red rose of England at under-18 level, is rather more central to Henry's planning, and the concerns now surrounding his well-being may force the coach into an 11th-hour reappraisal.

The fear that Newcastle's finest may not survive his first tour outing, let alone the first test, surely means that Neil Jenkins, the most successful points-gatherer in rugby history, will make the trip.

The 2001 Wallabies are not the 1997 Springboks, after all. Four years ago, the Boks lost the opening two tests to Martin Johnson's Lions largely because their non-specialist kickers could not hit a game reserve with a stick of biltong.

By contrast, this Australia vintage is likely to feature Matthew Burke, Stirling Mortlock, Joe Roff and John Eales, all of whom can kick goals in their sleep.

If the Lions fail to match them in this crucial area, it will be a case of "Goodnight Pom."

Ronan O'Gara's failure to bisect the uprights for Munster, both in last season's Heineken Cup final against Northampton and in last weekend's semifinal against Stade Francais, suggests the Irishman is not the marksman for the big occasion.

He is now under extreme pressure from Gregor Townsend, the Lions' No 1 first-five in 97, who has been running hot in French championship rugby with Castres in recent weeks.

Townsend is no more dependable a kicker than O'Gara, but he offers something that Henry craves: positional flexibility.

Two Leicester backs will also feature in today's discussions: the English fullback Tim Stimpson and the Irish wing Geordan Murphy.

Neither man featured in this season's Six Nations championship, but Stimpson's prolific goal-kicking and Murphy's genius for delivering the unexpected must at least have left an imprint on the Lions' mindset.

If they fail to make the cut, they are likely to be included among the non-travelling reserves.

Happily, Henry has been spared one problem: the captaincy decision where Johnson is the only logical choice.

The selectors would break new ground by offering him a second tour of duty as skipper, but the Leicester lock's leadership qualities have developed so much since 1997, when Fran Cotton and Ian McGeechan chose him as their chief Springbok-baiter, that failure to reappoint him would be little short of scandalous.

Talking of scandals, the refusal of the International Rugby Board to name a single Northern Hemisphere official for any of the tests raises a question or three. The first test will be handled by Andre Watson, while the second, in Melbourne, will be controlled by another South African, Jonathan Kaplan.

The final match in Sydney has been awarded to Paddy O'Brien, the New Zealander who made such a desperate fist of the France-Fiji World Cup match in Toulouse 18 months ago.

In the interests of balance, one of the tests should have been given to a French referee - or, at the very least, an official from outside the cosy little Tri-Nations fraternity.

Joel Dume, the Frenchman who controlled the Wales-England match in the Six Nations and also ran last weekend's Heineken Cup semifinal between Leicester and Gloucester, is on the IRB's new A panel. So is the fast-improving Argentine official, Pablo Deluca. The fact that neither has been given so much as a touch-judge's role means that Tri-Nation rules will rule, okay?

- INDEPENDENT