Lenihan copes with longest day

Like ships passing in the night and all that, the intervening weekend between the first and second matches of the Lions' tour seemed to be taken up exclusively by criss-crossing global travel. As the Lions trekked across Australia, Gordon Bulloch and Martin Corry were called up from their respective posts in Colorado and Canada, while the youngest member of the party, Simon Taylor, went home.

On foot of Corry's call-up for Taylor, the English coach Clive Woodward, who could probably pick an argument with Mother Teresa even now, needlessly entered the fray by accusing the Lions' management of making a panic move, to which Donal Lenihan retorted "I thought Clive had the franchise on panic." Ouch. The tour is on.

Having had his retort at Woodward (with whom there is clearly little love lost) on arrival in Townsville for tomorrow's clash with a Queensland President XV, Lenihan then announced a team which shows 14 changes in the starting line-up, and includes Rob Henderson and Jeremy Davidson.

To begin with, Lenihan was obliged to explain the events which led to Taylor's departure. Ironically, given his highly skilled, gazelle-like performance as a second-half replacement in the 116-10 win over Western Australia, it transpired that Taylor had taken a bang on his knee which flared up later and prompted him to see the Lions' doctor James Robson at about 11.00 p.m. local time in Perth on Friday night.

Robson immediately diagnosed both cruciate and medial ligament tears, an opinion shared by an orthopaedic surgeon, and pending an MRI scan the following morning Lenihan asked England for Corry's release before their second Test against Canada on Saturday. A miffed Woodward then released the news of Corry's call-up from there, venturing that he wouldn't have made such a move had he been in charge of the Lions.

Lenihan was left to stew on that one throughout Saturday, assuredly the longest day of the tour. First navigational problems with the tourists' privately hired charter and then problems in obtaining clearance for the replacement plane led to a six-and-a-half hour delay in a one-room departure terminal. Eventually the Lions embarked on the six-hour journey across the country via Alice Springs for a fuel pit-stop en route to Townsville in northern, tropical Queensland on the east coast, arriving after 2 a.m. local time yesterday.

Elaborating on his response to Woodward's provocative remarks, Lenihan added, "As you know Lawrence (Dallaglio) wasn't available for another few games and we would have been left with five back-row forwards for two huge games, one on Tuesday and one the following Saturday.

"So certainly I don't see it as panic, I think we've been proved right and justified because if Martin had played on Saturday (for England) he'd have been another two days getting here and if he'd got injured in that match it would have posed further difficulties for us. And to be fair to England they did pull him out of the squad on Friday and we're very grateful for that."

Corry arrived yesterday while despite setting off at around 6 p.m. on Thursday from Colorado, local time, Bulloch comfortably beat his new Lions teammates to Townsville. "I got here yesterday afternoon at about 2 p.m., so work it out for yourselves. There was a lot of time in between flights."

With one eye on the Lions' tour, and another on having a first summer off since 1993, Bulloch had returned to Colorado, where he'd played some club rugby in '95, to train in the gym and at altitude. Alas, there hadn't been enough time for that to take effect.

Corry goes straight into tomorrow's team, while Bulloch is on the bench, where Jason Leonard and Austin Healey appear for the second time in a row, but whereas Leonard will probably start against the Queensland Reds on Saturday, Healey may privately wonder if he's to become a victim of his own versatility. Perhaps not co-incidentally, given the demands of their season, the seven players of the original squad here yet to start (excluding the departed Taylor) are all frontline English internationals. In addition to Healey and Leonard, there are the injured trio of Phil Greening (whose tour is in doubt), Lawrence Dallaglio (whose return date is still not cast in stone) and Mike Catt (who, like Iain Balshaw, should be fit again for Saturday's game) along with the rested duo of Jonny Wilkinson and Martin Johnson - whose powder is being kept dry.

Henderson and Davidson make their first tour starts (and Malcolm O'Kelly is on the bench - which suggests Danny Grewcock may start alongside Johnson next Saturday). Henderson is listed at 12 and Will Greenwood (the only man to start both games) at 13, but Greenwood was numbered thus on Friday and still played inside centre. Graham Henry yesterday stated that the centres would be flexible, though the evidence of training and the opening game is that Greenwood is the front-runner for that role in the Test team.

In any case, the fear for Henderson must be that, after playing as replacement right-winger in the opener, the tour will then be at least three weeks old before he is given a start in his most effect position of inside centre. We'll see. The honour of captaincy is being bestowed on Welsh tight-head Dai Young.

LIONS (v Queensland President's XV): M Perry (Bath and England); D James (Bridgend and Wales), W Greenwood (Harlequins and England), R Henderson (Munster and Wasps), J Robinson (Sale and England); N Jenkins (Cardiff and Wales), M Dawson (Northampton and England); T Smith (Northampton and Scotland), R McBryde (Llanelli and Wales), D Young (Cardiff and Wales, capt), J Davidson (Ulster and Ireland), S Murray (Saracens and Scotland), C Charvis (Swansea and Wales), M Williams (Cardiff and Wales), M Corry (Leicester and England).

Replacements: A Healey (Leicester and England), M Taylor (Swansea and Wales), D Luger (Harlequins and England), R Hill (Saracens and England), M O'Kelly (Leinster and Ireland), J Leonard (Harlequins and England), G Bulloch (Glasgow and Scotland).