WELLINGTON // Ireland hooker Rory Best will captain a British & Irish Lions team which features six uncapped players on the bench tomorrow against the Hamilton-based Chiefs.
Coach Warren Gatland summoned four players from Wales and two from Scotland into his touring squad on Saturday and all six have been named as replacements for the Lions’ sixth tour match – and last warm-up before the first Test against New Zealand at Eden Park on Saturday.
Kristian Dacey, Tomas Francis, Cory Hill and Gareth Davies were called up by Gatland from the Wales squad which beat Tonga on Friday and Allan Dell and Finn Russell from the Scotland team that beat Australia on Saturday. They boost an already substantial Lions squad to 46 players with five matches remaining after Saturday’s 32-10 win over the New Zealand Maori.
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The line-up Gatland named to face the Maori was close to his Test line-up and only three of those players – lock Iain Henderson, winger Elliot Daly and scrum-half Greig Laidlaw who also started from the bench on Saturday – have been named to backup against the Chiefs.
Wales lock Alun Wyn Jones and Scotland winger Tommy Seymour are among the reserves which may indicate they retain some chance of making the Test line-up as replacements.
Laidlaw will combine with Wales fly-half Dan Biggar while the Ireland pair of Robbie Henshaw and Jared Payne will start in midfield, beside Daly and England winger Jack Nowell.
Best will line up in the front row between England props Joe Marler and Dan Coles while Henderson teams with England’s Courtney Lawes in a strong second row. Lawes has fully recovered from a head knock he suffered last week against the Dunedin-based Highlanders.
“We are five games into the tour and there is still a lot to play for,” Gatland said. “Those involved on Tuesday will be playing not only for themselves in terms of further selection but also for the whole squad.
“We are here to win a Test series and we have brought cover for the replacements bench so we can limit the number of players who need to double up, which is tough to do at this level of rugby.”
Gatland has been criticised in Britain for summoning so many replacements to a squad which already numbered 40 fit players and which would seem to have the resources necessary to cope with the five remaining matches in New Zealand.
New Zealand-born Gatland tried to deflect attention from his selections by suggesting All Blacks coach Steve Hansen might be worried at the Lions’ recent form.
“I’m a little bit surprised by Steve Hansen, who is normally pretty calm,” Gatland said. “He has been doing a lot of press conferences and I can only take that as a sign of respect in that he is a little bit worried.
“They arranged a pretty quick game against Samoa and if you saw the first 20-30 minutes, they needed that.”
New Zealand’s 2011 Rugby World Cup hero Stephen Donald will captain an inexperienced Chiefs line-up against the Lions.
Donald, 33, a veteran of 100 matches for the Waikato-based Chiefs, is by far the most-seasoned member of a line-up depleted by the loss of players to the All Blacks and the New Zealand Maori squads.
Centre Tim Nanai-Williams, who played for Samoa against the All Blacks in Auckland on Friday, is the next most-experienced member of the Chiefs line-up with 82 appearances.
* Associated Press
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