Lions will roar without Gibbs

It was a devastating blow but at least I toured with the Lions in New Zealand four years later when, despite problems with my form, I enjoyed the experience.

Yes, I led the Lions against Waikato when we suffered a record midweek defeat, but I also made my Test debut in the famous red jersey and it's a treasured memory.

Luger's place will go to Jason Robinson, the former Great Britain rugby league wing now playing union with Sale.

He has made an impact as a replacement for England in the Six Nations and this will be his major role in Australia, where he is well known as a league star.

I expect the rest of the Lions squad to be based firmly on the excellent England team that has dominated the Six Nations with 17 players coming from that squad.

Martin Johnson will become the first player to captain successive Lions tours after his heroic efforts in South Africa and he should have nine Welshmen, seven Irish and just four Scotsmen under his command.

Scotland's difficult season has meant no tour for the Leslie brothers, Martin and John. The Scots' only tour representatives look likely to be lock Scott Murray, hooker Gordon Bulloch, prop Tom Smith and Gregor Townsend - if they opt for his experience rather than the promise of Ireland's Ronan O'Gara.

Townsend can also play centre and a recent good display for Castres, compared to O'Gara's form in Munster's defeat by Stade Francais, will be a factor for the selectors at their final meeting.

I hope rugby politics stays out of that meeting because it affected the make-up of the 1993 tour to New Zealand when a lack of tight-head props to shore up the scrum meant Jason Leonard had to move across the front row. He did a remarkable job but Jason knew Jeff Probyn or Peter Clohessy should have been wearing the No 3 jersey.

The Lions had taken Peter Wright and Paul Burnell, both from Scotland, on a tour coached by Ian McGeechan, of Scotland.

McGeechan admitted as the tour went along that mistakes had been made although it was far too late to do anything about them.

That is why I hope they get the front row right this time as it seems certain that David Young, who was part of the 1989 Lions Test-winning pack in Australia, will tour along with John Hayes, of Ireland. Going into the final selection session, that pair are ahead of Saracens strong man Julian White, a glaring mistake that even a man of my extensive scrummaging knowledge cannot miss.

Graham Henry is the Welsh coach and that may explain why the Lions coach believes Young is the right choice ahead of White. But although the Welsh prop has experience, he has been injury prone in recent seasons and this will be a very testing tour up front.

There may be a surprise at the decision to ignore the Irish back row in favour of choosing the entire English and Welsh units and Scotland captain Budge Pountney is another who could feel aggrieved at missing out. He is a hard-working forward but the selectors believe Martyn Williams, the Welsh open-side, best suits their requirements.

It was expected the England pack would dominate the 1997 Test side, yet it was Tom Smith (Scotland), Paul Wallace (Ireland) and Jeremy Davidson (Ireland) who forced their way into the line-up and I am sure there will be similar shocks in this three-Test tour.

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