British & Irish Lions demands pay off amid player availability row as Australia release more stars for tour matches
Following a meeting between Lions chief executive Ben Calveley and his Rugby Australia counterpart here on the west coast on Tuesday morning, it was confirmed that hooker Matt Faessler and centre Hunter Paisami are returning to Brisbane to represent their Super Rugby franchise.
The duo will bolster the Reds for their showdown with the Lions at Suncorp Stadium on July 2.
This will be perceived as a climb-down by Australia and a coup for Calveley, who had suggested the hosts could be in breach of the tour agreement if they didn't make their stars available for fixtures involving the state sides.
'The agreement is very clear; it says that Test players have to be released to play in fixtures leading into that series,' said Calveley. 'That is our expectation. It's very important that these games are competitive.'
The addition of Faessler and Paisami – who have been training with the Wallabies squad in Sydney ahead of a warm-up Test against Fiji in Newcastle – will ensure that the Reds should be competitive in Queensland's state capital next Wednesday.
It means that the Lions should be aided by another meaningful match, after facing a Western Force side featuring five Wallabies at Optus Stadium here in Perth on Saturday.
Joe Schmidt, Australia's head coach, had responded to Calveley's comments by claiming that more players could be released after all – despite previously indicating that he would keep some 25 of his leading lights in camp, to avoid the spectre of untimely injuries prior to the Test series.
Now, his Lions counterpart, Andy Farrell, will wait to discover if the Waratahs and Brumbies will be similarly bolstered for clashes with the tourists on July 5 and July 9 respectively, in Sydney and Canberra.
News of the Reds reinforcements was welcomed by the Lions, as attack coach Andrew Goodman said: 'Oh lovely. It's exciting. Hunter is a great player.
'If you look at the Force players who've been released, I've watched a lot of their rugby this year and they've got an exciting group. If you watch a Force team or a Reds team during Super Rugby, it's not an indication of what you're going to get against a Lions team. It's a once-in-a-life opportunity for most of those guys so the level of intensity is going to be through the roof.'
Meanwhile, the Lions will name their team on Thursday for the encounter with the Force and Ireland full-back Hugo Keenan is unlikely to be considered while he continues his recovery from injury, while compatriot James Ryan is also a doubt. However, scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park – another of the large Leinster and Irish contingent – is set to be available for selection.
Asked for an update on the recent casualties, Goodman said: 'Jamison trained pretty much fully today, Hugo continued on with a bit of rehab and James Ryan was out there doing some bits and pieces as well. It's all tracking well.
'A couple of them are still in return-to-play and we'll see how they pull up after today. We've got another training session on Friday. Hugo is still in that return-to-play process but the rest of them took part in training today.'
Andy Farrell will name his team on Thursday for the match against Western Force this weekend
Pierre Schoeman defended the presence of imports into the Lions squad from outside the UK
Reflecting on the pre-tour defeat against Argentina, which saw the Lions punished for some loose and overly-ambitious handling, Goodman insisted that the British and Irish squad won't opt to 'tighten up' as a result. They are intent on winning the series against the Wallabies, but also winning hearts and minds in the process.
'We want to play good rugby. The group we've got here want to come over to Australia and play a nice, attractive brand of rugby. It will help grow the game if there are two teams attacking. When it comes to a Test match it's about winning, but we are going to develop our game so we can play at speed and give something to the fans who, as we've talked about, have paid a lot of money to come over here and watch us.'
Meanwhile, Scotland's South African prop, Pierre Schoeman, has become the latest player born outside the UK and Ireland to defend the presence of so many foreign imports in the Lions ranks.
It has been a contentious issue since Farrell named his tour squad on May 8, but the 31-year-old loosehead said: 'If you're good enough to play for your country, then you're good enough to play for the Lions and you're selected, obviously you're going to do that.
'Scotland is home for us; my wife and myself. I know other players, like Mack Hansen (Australia-born wing) has made Ireland home. You embrace that. It's like the movie Outlander. You move to a different country, and now that's your house. You live there.
'You buy into the culture. And now to represent the British and Irish Lions, you fully buy into that. You fully submerge into that. Nothing else matters. Not your past, not the future. It's about the now. Yesterday is gone forever, tomorrow might never come, so now is the time to live. That's what we do as Lions. It's about the now; this tour. This is what really matters.'
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