Media keeps Sydney sizzling for showdown

By WYNNE GRAY in Sydney

Sydney is seething with sporting anticipation.

The Lions are in residence and with them is an army of raucous supporters and a media contingent nudging triple figures.

The skirmishes before the real battle tomorrow are becoming more trenchant.

Almost before the Lions landed in Western Australia, Super 12 coaches Eddie Jones and Bob Dwyer were calling for stricter policing of the Lions' forwards.

Screeds of copy were churned out to remind Australia about the brutality of the Lions in 1989, and when the biff came in some matches there was outrage.

The media following the Lions fought back, as you would expect from a group who have men among them once known as the "Rottweiler" and the "Beastie Boys."

They got more ammunition when the Lions pulverised an insipid Wallaby team in the first test at Brisbane, but then had to wear lashings of Australian jingoism last week when the home team bounced back.

In the Daily Telegraph yesterday, before he knew Stephen Larkham would fail a fitness test, columnist Jeff Wells savaged the Lions for targeting the first five-eighths, the match officials for their inefficiency, and urged the Wallabies to go for the biff.

The Lions have had a media sideshow all of their own, with the revelations in several players' tour diaries about significant unhappiness in the party.

At various times Matt Dawson, Austin Healey, Dan Luger and now Malcolm O'Kelly have had a clip at coach Graham Henry.

A couple of the diarists are in the rent-a-quote business, but there are others who have felt aggrieved for a variety of reasons.

If Henry and the Lions win tomorrow, all Dawson's angst on the morning of the Brisbane test will be irrelevant - victory will be the coach's trumpcard.

Defeat will bring so much bile to the surface that the British newspapers may need to print special supplements.

Reasons for the disharmony are widespread. The 37-strong squad was probably too big, injured players such as Lawrence Dallaglio and Mike Catt were picked, and when finally fit, had to be given games which pushed aside the chances of others who performed well in their absence.

Some candidates just did not fire at all and in a tight itinerary, opportunities were few.

After the loss to Australia A, Henry gave the midweekers away. The test series had to be won.

A man with a shrewd rugby brain, he can also be acerbic and that grated with some players.

The question tomorrow is whether the Lions can wind themselves up enough to give their all for a coach they have not warmed to.

The response will be determined by senior men such as Martin Johnson, who tasted defeat in Melbourne for the first time in almost 30 games, and Keith Wood.

Jonny Wilkinson also has a big role, but there must be doubt about him because he was limping yesterday at training.

The irony will come if he does not last. Henry then has to put Healey into five-eighths alongside Dawson and trust that his twin persecutors can bring him victory.