Sir Clive Woodward has taken the drastic action necessary against his first Test flops by naming a radically changed team for Saturday’s showdown with New Zealand at Westpac Stadium.
Woodward today made 11 changes - including four positional switches in the back division - following last weekend’s 21-3 debacle in Christchurch.
There are seven new faces - centre Gavin Henson, wing Shane Williams, hooker Steve Thompson, lock Donncha O’Callaghan and the back-row trio of Simon Easterby, Lewis Moody and Ryan Jones.
Easterby and Jones have made a mockery of Woodward’s initial 45-man squad selection, clinching Test spots after arriving as respective replacements for injured pair Lawrence Dallaglio and Simon Taylor.
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Five changes are inevitably up-front, where the Lions were horribly over-powered by a rampant All Blacks pack five days ago, with an injured Richard Hill joined on the outside by Shane Byrne, Ben Kay, Neil Back and Martin Corry.
Hooker Byrne and back-row forward Corry are now on the replacements’ bench, but Leicester pair Kay and 36-year-old Back miss out completely.Only props Gethin Jenkins and Julian White, together with lock Paul O’Connell, remain for a chance to avenge the Christchurch pummelling.
Behind the scrum, Woodward has at last gone for Welsh Grand Slam stars Henson and Williams, who are among the most creative players in British rugby. Henson’s first Test omission was a major surprise, while Williams booked his place by scoring five tries during yesterday’s 109-6 stroll against second division minnows Manawatu.
The new captain Gareth Thomas will partner Henson in midfield, having been switched from the wing to be handed injured captain Brian O’Driscoll’s number 13 shirt.
Woodward has also decreed a positional swap for England pair Josh Lewsey and Jason Robinson, with Lewsey at full-back and Robinson on the wing. Robinson though, who has shown nothing like his true form on tour, is fortunate to have retained a place, especially with Ireland’s Geordan Murphy pushing hard for recognition.
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Jonny Wilkinson, meanwhile, reverts from inside centre to fly-half instead of Stephen Jones, but Woodward retains Dwayne Peel as his half-back partner, rather than promoting the more experienced England World Cup winner Matt Dawson.
It will be Wilkinson’s first start in a full-blown Test at number 10 since the 2003 World Cup final. The team comprises six Englishmen, six Welsh and three Irish, with five players - Henson, Williams, O’Callaghan, Easterby and Moody - making their Lions Test debuts.
Defeat for the Lions would leave them facing an irretrievable 2-0 deficit with one Test still to go in Auckland on Saturday week, destroying Woodward’s dream of following England’s World Cup triumph by defeating the All Blacks in New Zealand.