Lions ready for ruck over rules

By CHRIS HEWETT

In a perfect world, the Lions management team would have cornered the leading Australian referee Scott Young and established a few ground rules before today's important pre-Test exercise against New South Wales.

They might have emerged from the meeting with a concession or two; with the grace of God and a following wind, they might even have obtained permission to scrummage like grown-ups, as opposed to schoolchildren.

But Australia is not a perfect world for visiting sports teams, who are tripped up or palmed off at every conceivable opportunity. Young was not even in the country yesterday, and his absence ensured that the tourists remained thoroughly nonplussed on the set-piece front.

An argument is brewing ahead of next Saturday's tete-a-tete with the Wallabies, and it may well come to a head at the atmospheric Sydney Football Stadium.

If Young, an international-class official with nine Tests under his belt, penalises the Lions off the park as his New Zealand counterpart Paul Honiss did in Gosford last Tuesday night, the solids will hit the air conditioning with an unholy splat.

Of course, the Lions fear that Young will do just that, thereby handing a clear advantage to the Phil Waugh and his bristling Waratahs and, more worryingly still, to the Wallabies now gathered together in preparation for the big 15-rounder at The Gabba.

"At the moment, the scrums are passive," complained Graham Henry, the Lions coach.

"I believe it is important for this match, and for rugby in general, that we see a contest at the set-piece. Rugby union needs to maintain its identity, and that aim will not be served if the scrum becomes a non-entity, an embarrassment. This is of concern to us, and we need to get it sorted."

Henry's fears are well justified. During the midweek defeat at hands of Australia A, the tourists were blown to smithereens by Honiss, who detected all manner of transgressions at the scrum: early pushing, illicit wheeling, you name it.

There were also problems during the Queensland match in Brisbane the previous week, when the home front row effectively declined to compete, particularly on the tight head.

As Martin Johnson, the Lions captain, put it yesterday: "If you feel you have a strong scrum, the idea is to force the opposition to work hard to hold you. They should be made to do it, because that is what union scrummaging is all about. At the moment, we can't have a proper go at the opposition."

Scrum or no scrum, the Lions should avenge themselves on the nine Waratahs who helped Australia A to victory in Gosford.

Bob Dwyer's Super 12ers will be strong up front, where Waugh and Tom Bowman are performing at something like Test pitch, and useful at half-back, where Sam Payne and Manny Edmonds cover most playmaking requirements, if not all of them.

Sam Harris, the young centre, is considered one of the brighter prospects in Australian rugby, while the former Saracen Duncan McRae has all the motives he needs to make a decent fist of his outing at full-back.

After all, Johnson is playing - and it was Johnson who notoriously tickled McRae's rib-cage in a domestic cup tie last December.

However, the Waratahs have loaned the best of their backs - Matthew Burke, Nathan Grey and Chris Whitaker - to the Wallaby cause, and are decidedly scratchy out wide.

If Will Greenwood and Brian O'Driscoll connect in midfield and succeed in creating the space craved by Jason Robinson and Iain Balshaw, the state side will do well to finish within 20 points of the tourists.

The real fascination surrounds three Englishmen - Robinson, Matt Dawson and Lawrence Dallaglio - and a single Welshman, in the formidable shape of Scott Quinnell.

These men are playing for Test places, and in the case of Dallaglio and Quinnell, the contest is very personal in nature.

With Richard Hill and Neil Back virtually certain of starting in Brisbane next weekend, only one back row position remains available. The whisper from the management team is that a decision will be made on the strength of today's evidence.

Dawson is some way behind Rob Howley in the race for the No 9 jersey, but the Welshman is still on the casualty list after damaging his ribs against Queensland seven days ago.

It would be just like his English rival to produce an epic performance in glorious Technicolor today, just for old times' sake.

Four years ago, Howley was a stone-cold Test certainty until his shoulder popped out a week before the opening rumble with the Springboks.

Dawson not only took his place, but won the Test for the Lions with the most celebrated dummy of the modern era. A spot of deja vu, perhaps?

- INDEPENDENT