Fresh controversy has hit the ill-fated Lions tour of Australia with the official video of the trip undergoing heavy censorship, a British Sunday newspaper has reported. Three days after Austin Healey was fined an undisclosed amount for comments he made in a British newspaper column during the tour, several scenes involving the same player have been cut from the video, Mail on Sunday said.
"...in a move that has upset (tour sponsors) ntl, together with their producers at PTV, who presented what they believed to be the finished cut of the video a fortnight ago, the Lions management have exercised their right to veto scenes," the Sunday paper reported. "And no single player has been affected more by this censorship than Healey."
The newspaper said one of the scenes cut from the video involved Healey describing how close he had come to punching Donal Lenihan after the tour manager's "damning speech to the team following their defeat by Australia A in Gosford in June". Another scene showed Healey criticising Lions coach Graham Henry for his coaching methods and man-management.
"The Lions had a veto which they exercised very aggressively," Mail on Sunday quoted a source close to the video protect as saying.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
