A FLARE UP in training, followed by a groundsman's attempt to order the Lions off the pitch for tomorrow's game against Border, temporarily threw the touring party off balance here yesterday.

The volatile atmosphere was not improved by a head wound sustained by Tim Rodber after a heavy collision. He will take his place on the bench despite having five stitches inserted in the cut above his right eye.

Rob Wainwright, who will be captain tomorrow, swiftly acted as peacemaker when the opposing hookers, England's Mark Regan and Wales's Barry Williams, traded punches after a clash of heads during contested scrummaging practice.

The Welshman, who signed for Richmond last week, clearly believed Regan was trying to intimidate him, but Wainwright dismissed the incident as "unimportant".

Wainwright said: "Live scrummaging practice is always difficult and there was a clash of heads which led to a flare up, but the two main protagonists have had a chat and laugh about it and it's all over.

Lions manager Fran Cotton said: it was a pretty intense session all round, pretty ferocious at times and there's a lot of personal pride at stake and occasionally you get the odd little flare up. But it remains on the training field - it's nothing serious, we've seen it many times before."

The confrontation between the head groundsman at the Basil Kenyon Stadium and Cotton was triggered by the Lions' insistence on continuing to train on a pitch which was cutting up badly because of heavy rainfall.

Cotton refused to bring the squad session to an early end and the groundsman was unable to offer a nearby practice pitch as an alternative because it was already occupied by an outside broadcast unit from Sky TV.

The majority of the Lions who did not share in Saturday's 39-11 victory over an Eastern Province XV are included in the line up for the Border match, which is expected to be no more than a useful warm up for the tougher battles to come.

The team includes two Irish players - Jeremy Davidson and Eric Miller. Prop Paul Wallace is named among the replacements.

However, the tourists' captain, Martin Johnson, will be rested for the second game running, but the management promised he will lead the side in Saturday's game against Western Province in Cape Town.

The decision to keep Johnson under wraps for another three days has drawn scornful criticism from South Africans.

But Cotton said: "We are following a selection policy which will allow us to use Martin in key games when we need him. We always thought it would take him three clear weeks from the end of the domestic season to get fit fresh, and raring to go.

Martin has endured a lot of rugby and was playing right up until the end of the season. Everybody understands his situation.

Cotton, though, was pleased to announce that Paul Grayson will start his first tour match alongside his England half back partner Austin Healey. Grayson seems to have made a full recovery from a groin muscle injury.

Cotton said: Paul has taken a full part in the last five training sessions and will be the front line kicker."

Wainwright will not want to do the job of being in charge of the midweek Lions too often. Becoming midweek captain can be the kiss of death for a Test place.

Wainwright said: "My job is to organise a decent result to follow our 39-11 win over Eastern Province in the first match."

It's important to note that we have a lot of subunits in the team with the back three from Newcastle, the centres from Wales and Neil Back and Eric Miller who work well together for Leicester in the back row. This is a new team and they will hopefully give us some cohesion."

Doddie Weir, who in Port Elizabeth underlined his claim to a Test place, will be the only Lion to have started the first two matches.

Gregor Townsend is left out of the team and admitted: "I had a disappointing match last Saturday in the tour opener.

Welsh centre Scott Gibbs, who played two Tests for the Lions in New Zealand in 1993, is one of four former rugby league players in the lineup.

He is reunited with Welsh international centre partner Alan Bateman while David Young, also of Wales, is in the front row and the fourth returnee from league, John Bentley, plays on the wing.

The Lions fielded 18 players in Port Elizabeth last Saturday and 12 more make their Lions 1997 debut tomorrow.

That leaves five who will still not have made a start: Johnson 15 doing his own thing, but centre Alan Tait, Dawson, Wallace and Rodber must be hungry for action. They are all on the bench and will be tactical substitutes.