THE Lions may have to call up an early replacement for Paul Grayson should the Northampton and England out-half prove unfit for selection for Saturday's opening game against an Eastern Province Invitation XV in Port Elizabeth.
Grayson, who has played just one competitive game in the past two months, will have a full workout alongside the other 34 Lions in the touring party at Kings Park, Durban, today which should clarify the management's intentions.
Mike Catt and Jonathan Davies, who are both on the Lions stand-by list, appear to be the most likely candidates to join the squad which set up HQ at their beach front hotel outside Durban after yesterday's 16-hour trip from Heathrow. If Grayson's fitness is tested in the Eastern Province game without positive results then Catt, if chosen, would have to travel from Argentina where the England squad arrive today to begin their six-match tour.
The fact that Grayson and Neil Jenkins are the only experienced Test goal-kickers in the squad puts extra pressure on Grayson in the opening week of a 13-match tour that threatens to have a heavy injury fall-out.
His England rival Catt was given the opportunity to play in the final Five Nations' victory over Wales in March after Grayson damaged a groin muscle in a league one game at Gloucester.
Meanwhile Dr Louis Luyt, president of the South African Rugby Football Union, made a tongue-in-cheek promise to tamper with the Lions' food to prevent them playing well when he made a welcoming speech at Johannesburg International Airport. Referring indirectly to allegations of food poisoning made by the All Blacks after the 1995 World Cup defeat at Ellis Park, Dr Luyt said: "We'll need to make sure that you are fed the right stuff so we can win against you.
The Lions ought to become a new partner in the Southern Hemisphere's annual Tri-Nations series which will resume in July after the Lions' tour finishes, suggested Dr Luyt. "I would like matches against the Lions to take place here every year or maybe every second year. Atter 17 years it's wonderful to welcome them back to South Africa - rugby is almost a religion here and the Lions also play as though it were a religion.
"It would be wonderful to see the Lions joining the Tri-Nations series, but I realise that because our seasons are so different that may be difficult," he said.
Luyt also wants the Lions concept extended to hosting matches against countries from the Southern Hemisphere when they visit Britain. "We have been talking about the Lions playing on their own pitches instead of only abroad for many years and it is about time we got down to serious discussion," he added.
Lions coach Ian McGeechan - on his sixth tour - backed the idea, saying: "I would like to see the top players of Britain assembled to compete against incoming tourists."
Steve Tshwete, the South African minister for sport, said he hoped the 1997 Lions' tour would "re-create the excitement felt by the entire nation" when the 1974 Lions (who won the Test series) toured South Africa with the support of ANC prisoners on Robben Island.
All of us are looking forward to a great rugby festival and the Lions' presence will be a massive boost for rugby here. The capacity of the game to be a force for national unity is great."
Fran Cotton, the Lions' manager who took part in the 1974 tour, declined to draw comparisons with the calibre of the 1997 Lions who, he says, "shave to create their own history".
He explained: "It will be a tough task - history tells us that. We have a lot of talented players, and an excellent team spirit and we've come here to enjoy our rugby."
Cotton and McGeechan now have five days with his 35-strong squad before their first match of the tour.
From long experience of Lions tours you never know exactly how it's going to progress and a Test team emerges through the early matches," he added.
One of the Lions' first tasks will be to get to know those team-mates they have not played with before. Skipper Martin Johnson revealed: "Until last Monday there were some guys in the squad that I had never spoken to before.
