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Fissler Extra: RWC winner on URC shortlist, Italian eyed as Faf back-up
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One of the few positives to come out of the British and Irish Lions debacle against the New Zealand Provincial Barbarians was the fact the tour party avoided serious injury, but as they head into the clash with the Blues in Auckland the threat of major disruption stalks the squad.
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On the last five British and Irish Lions tours an average of six players had to be replaced either before they left home or during the trip and with Billy Vunipola and Ben Youngs dropping out just after the official 2017 picture was taken in London, the current squad is likely to get close to double figures.
It’s a sad fact of Lions life that players will suffer serious injury due to the nature of the sport and on the last tour to New Zealand in 2005 Iain Balshaw (Eng), Malcolm O’Kelly (Ire), Lawrence Dallaglio (Eng), Simon Taylor (Sco), Danny Grewcock (Eng) and Richard Hill (Eng) all failed to make the end of the trip. The Lions tale of woe shows that in 2013 and 2009 there were nine players drafted in either just before the tour started or during the trip; in 2005 there were six , 2001 seven players were called up and in 1997- the first professional tour – another five were added due to injuries.
Gone are the days when the Lions were in country for so long that serious injuries would be healed in time for the player to reappear before the end of the tour. After all, it used to take months by sea to get to New Zealand and sending out replacements was not an option.
Now it appears tours by the Four Home Unions are arranged to cut down the travelling time for potential replacements with Scotland playing in Australia and Fiji during this Lions visit. England are in Argentina, Ireland are travelling to Japan while Wales are actually playing in Auckland against Tonga on June 16 and against Samoa in Apia on June 23.
While this makes the Home Unions teams resemble vultures circling in the hope of a “kill” the truth is that time does matter when you are only playing 10 matches and any replacement will need to be integrated with lightening speed. Warren Gatland has dealt with injury disruptions on the last two Lions tours and admits:” “We plan to lose six to 10 players; that’s just the attrition rate of past tours. Any player who gets injured at this time is a big loss to the squad because you spend a lot of time going through the process of picking players.”
