Lions captain Martin Johnson and key England players Johnny Wilkinson and Lawrence Dallaglio will almost certainly be rested for the tourists' opening match in Australia on Friday. Lions coach Graham Henry will wait until later this week before naming his team for the tour opener against Western Australia but he told reporters on Sunday he would not risk any players carrying injuries.
Johnson, Wilkinson and Dallaglio are among a handful of players still nursing minor injuries from the long European season and Henry said he wanted to save them for the bigger matches ahead.
"We're not pushing anyone into these games that's not 100 per cent fit," Henry said. "We're trying to rest guys that have played a lot in the last month."
The Lions will play 10 matches on their five-week tour with the three tests against Australia scheduled for June 30, July 7 and July 14. Johnson said the Lions were already racing against time to get ready to take on the world champions. Australia have never beaten the Lions in a series but are favourites to triumph this time after winning the 1999 World Cup and last year's Tri-Nations.
"We're a scratch team that's been thrown together and we've got a month to get ourselves in good enough shape to take them on," Johnson said. "We've got talent, but it's all about getting it together in the field and only time will tell."
The Lions held a brief training camp in England before flying out and they wasted no time once they arrived in Australia. They held a practice session hours after touching down on Saturday and were then back on the training field on Sunday.
"We've got a lot of work to do, we've had half a dozen training sessions and we've got to lay the foundations," Henry added. "We haven't done that yet obviously and these guys haven't played together so there's a lot of work to be done." (Reuters)
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
