Healey is driven to be a Roff diamond

'It's a big task, the biggest of all. The challenge is to rise to the occasion and there will be no bigger one than this. I've got to go out there, get my hands on the ball and do something with it. When Joe gets the ball, I've got to stop him.'

Healey's achievements last season included playing an even better game than he talked, most notably in May's European Cup Final at Parc des Princes, when his late switch to fly half coincided with the break which split Stade Francais and won the Heineken trophy for Leicester.

His first full Lions Test appearance is overdue reward for having the nerve to mount a challenge on three fronts. He started the tour, apparently, as the third-choice scrum half, graduated to second-choice stand off for the Brisbane Test and has ended up as first-choice right wing.

He would have been the Test No.10 had Jonny Wilkinson not completed his inspiring recovery from last week's collision in Melbourne.

The Lions knew they had to find a place for Healey somewhere. With Matt Dawson the logical replacement for stricken Rob Howley at scrum half, someone had to go. Dafydd James, the makeshift Welsh wing, paid dearly for his one mistake in two Tests, failing to put Jason Robinson clear in the opening minutes last Saturday.

Coach Graham Henry revealed that Healey's virtuoso display in saving the midweek Lions against the ACT Brumbies in Canberra would have earned him a Test place last week had he not been injured, a puzzling comment considering that the Englishman had been named as a substitute before his withdrawal.

Henry, having predicted that Healey would be the 'surprise package', has picked him knowing that he has to go for broke to win the series. Henry said: 'Austin will give us another dimension. We have a number of English coaches and they think he can handle the defensive work.'

Healey thinks so, too, although he could be forgiven for wondering exactly where he stands after flitting between positions. He said: 'It happens at Leicester, so why should here be any different? The whole focus of the tour is on this one game. If we don't win, the tour will have been a failure.'

The fact that he has made some barbed comments about the severity of the Henry- driven training regime adds spice to it all. He said: 'You're bound to have ups and downs being on tour for seven weeks. It's a question of finishing on an up. I can take all the downs as long as we finish on a high. There's been a great deal of propaganda. Now it's time for our rugby to do the talking.'

In the pack, Martin Corry is back at blindside for the concussed Richard Hill. Darren Morris replaces Jason Leonard on the bench, while backs Will Greenwood and Ronan O'Gara make the Test squad for the first time.