Lions assistant coach Andrew Goodman has welcomed Australia's decision to release two Wallabies back to the Reds amid rising tension between the rivals’ top brass.
Wallabies hooker Matt Faessler and centre Hunter Paisami will face Andy Farrell’s side in Brisbane next Wednesday following a row between Australia head coach Joe Schmidt and Lions chief executive Ben Calveley.
Schmidt was previously only allowing a number of his Western Force players to feature against the tourists in Perth on Saturday, resulting in a warning from Calveley of the hosts’ contractual obligations to ensure the Super Rugby franchises field the strongest possible sides.
Calveley and Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh met on Wednesday to discuss the situation, leading to Schmidt’s decision to release Faessler and Paisami.
"It’s exciting," Goodman said.
"Hunter is a great player. If you look at the Force players who’ve been released, I’ve watched a lot of their rugby this year and they’ve got an exciting group.
"If you watch a Force team or a Reds team during Super Rugby, it’s not an indication of what you’re going to get against a Lions team.
"It’s a once-in-a-life opportunity for most of those guys, so the level of intensity is going to be through the roof."
Ireland duo Jamison Gibson-Park and Hugo Keenan are the only doubts ahead of Saturday’s showdown with the Force at Optus Stadium because of respective glute and calf injuries.
The Lions on Thursday morning name their team for the Perth opener and Goodman said: "A couple of them are still in return-to-play and we’ll see how they pull up after training."
Meanwhile Pierre Schoeman insists the Lions’ overseas-born contingent have earned the right to be in Australia and have fully immersed themselves in the tourists’ culture.
The Scotland prop is one of eight Lions players who were born, raised and educated in South Africa, New Zealand or Australia but qualify for their home unions through residency or family lineage.
Players who hail from the southern hemisphere representing the Lions is nothing new, but the number of them present in Andy Farrell’s squad has caused a stir.
Lions great Willie John McBride said it "bothered" him, while former England scrum-half Danny Care declared that "it doesn’t sit that well with me".
But Schoeman insists they are ready to give everything in the quest to complete a series victory over the Wallabies, with Saturday’s fixture against Western Force their first assignment on Australian soil.
"If you’re good enough to play for your country, you’re good enough to play for the Lions and you’re selected, then obviously you’re going to do that," said Schoeman, who made five appearances for South Africa Under-20s in 2014.
"Playing for the Lions is massive. Scotland is home for us, my wife and myself. I know that’s for the other players as well, like Mack Hansen has made Ireland home.
"You embrace that. You fully take that on. It’s like the series Outlander – you move to a different country and now that’s your house. You live there.
"If you work for one of the big four in finance, you get the opportunity, you’re going to go for it. And you can really make that home.
"But this is much different. To represent the British and Irish Lions, you fully buy into that and its culture. You fully submerge into that. Nothing else matters. Not your past, not the future. It’s about the now."
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