But a decisive Lions Test against the world champions has to be right up there, and while there have been frustrating moments during this trip, I’m very proud of my selection.”Graham Henry, the head coach, thought long and hard about picking “the Lip” for last weekend’s Test in Melbourne. Having fielded his most versatile player at scrum-half in Gosford and Coffs Harbour and watched him cut various sides to ribbons from outside-half in the latter stages of other games, the New Zealander was so taken by Healey’s contribution from the wing during the unlikely victory over the Brumbies in Canberra eight days ago that he considered dropping the bigger, more predictable Welshman Dafydd James for the visit to the Colonial Stadium. However, Healey effectively made Henry’s decision for him by leaving the Australian capital on crutches.His physical discomfort was partially of his own making. Not for the first time in a highly-charged game, Healey sledged the opposition to distraction and made lifetime enemies of a fair few of them, not least Justin Harrison, the outsized Brumbies’ lock.

When Healey intercepted a pass from his former Leicester clubmate, Pat Howard, and scuttled the best part of 70 metres to restore the Lions’ interest in a contest that had threatened to race away from them, Harrison ran almost as far to deliver an off-the-ball clip and inform him: “That’s just one try, you little ?* ?*!, and you Brits are taking a stuffing.” After scoring a second, match-winning try in the umpteenth minute of injury time, Healey sought out Harrison and responded in characteristic fashion “That’s try number two, you great lump,” he said. “What’s more, you’ve just lost.”In Healey’s world, a quality insult is worth any number of late challenges; he is a sporting entertainer of the first rank, and the verbal barrage is part and parcel of his act. But international rugby matches are rarely decided by the standard of invective. If the Lions are to prevail on Saturday, they will require rock-solid basics and a top layer of attacking ingenuity. As far as their new right wing is concerned, that equates to a faultless defensive performance against Roff, plus half a dozen attacking interventions in half a dozen different parts of the Stadium Australia paddock.”I am the sort of player who needs to make the most of opportunities as and when they arrive,” Healey said. “I am not so arrogant as to come on a tour like this and claim to possess the ability to play Test rugby in a variety of positions. Had I not been given a start, I would certainly have left Australia a disappointed man.

But there is an element of luck on a Lions tour: Some people get a chance at the right time, others have to wait until the end for their opportunity My opportunity is now, in the final game It means a great deal to me.”. Lawrence Dallaglio will be out of action for up to nine months after undergoing reconstructive surgery on damaged cruciate ligaments in a knee, an injury which forced him out of the Lions tour 10 days ago. Lawrence Dallaglio will be out of action for up to nine months after undergoing reconstructive surgery on damaged cruciate ligaments in a knee, an injury which forced him out of the Lions tour 10 days ago.
The plight of England No 8 is likely to spark a row over insurance and the question of compensation between his club, Wasps, and the Lions administration. Dallaglio had been struggling with the injury since the beginning of May when he hobbled out of the Zurich Championship semi-final play-off against Bath at Loftus Road.A couple of weeks later, though, he was training with the British Isles and Ireland party without any protective or supportive strapping on the knee and appeared, at the time, not to be suffering any problems. According to reports, Nigel Melville, the Wasps director of rugby, and Gareth Rees, the assistant coach, both advised against Dallaglio going on the tour to give the injury time to clear up completely – advice which was ignored.”The Lions coaches, medical team and insurers passed him fit to travel, but personally I would rather he had stayed at home,” Melville said. “However, you can’t stop a player going on a Lions tour if he is passed fit. He’ll now miss the November internationals, the Six Nations and most of our season, after only one midweek game for the Lions.

It’s a massive blow, but these things happen in professional sport and we just have to get on with planning for the new season.”Melville admitted that Wasps are already seeking a replacement for Dallaglio and have some names in mind, but that is going to be costly operation, because they will be still be paying Dallaglio a reported £250,000 per annum – a deal which runs over the next four years, and makes him the highest paid English rugby union player – but will also have to pay his stand-in. It is likely that the club will seek financial redress from the Lions, although the club was not making any comment on that last night.Dallaglio defended his decision to go on the tour. “I knew the physical requirements of playing Test rugby for the Lions and I know I am not up to the mark at the moment,” he said.”I feel I have justified my decision to come on the tour, even though the decision was made with a view to competing for a Test place, as opposed to just picking up a red shirt then leaving. I expect to make a full recovery between now and September and come back next season a fitter and stronger player.” Presumably he now means the following season.. Jonny Wilkinson’s powers of recovery appear to border on the miraculous.

Four days after being taken off on a stretcher at the Colonial Stadium in Melbourne, deposited in an ambulance and whisked off to the nearest orthopaedic ward, the Newcastle outside-half and celebrated goal-kicking wunderkind was named in a largely familiar British Isles Test line-up for the third and final set-to with the Wallabies at Stadium Australia on Saturday. “He is not 100 per cent fit right now,” Graham Henry, the Lions coach admitted, “but he will be by kick-off time.”

Jonny Wilkinson’s powers of recovery appear to border on the miraculous. Four days after being taken off on a stretcher at the Colonial Stadium in Melbourne, deposited in an ambulance and whisked off to the nearest orthopaedic ward, the Newcastle outside-half and celebrated goal-kicking wunderkind was named in a largely familiar British Isles Test line-up for the third and final set-to with the Wallabies at Stadium Australia on Saturday. “He is not 100 per cent fit right now,” Graham Henry, the Lions coach admitted, “but he will be by kick-off time.”
All of which sat easily with the prognosis offered by the miracle worker himself, Dr Jim Robson, who spent the best part of two days laying hands on Wilkinson after the player had suffered a worryingly severe injury to his lower left leg during the second half of the record second Test defeat. Robson had predicted on Tuesday that the first-choice stand-off would be ready for action come the weekend, and he is far too shrewd a judge to stake his reputation on a long-odds bet.But there remains a degree of suspicion that Wilkinson will not start the game – or, at least, start it in a state of optimum fitness. If he fails to make it at all, Austin Healey is likely to move from the right wing, where he has displaced Dafydd James, and play 10 for the second time in a 38-cap Test career The Lions would then have three options.