Riki Flutey will not give up fight for jersey

Flutey said: "Jamie and Brian O'Driscoll have been playing fantastic rugby but the combinations are being mixed up and the coaches have been very honest about giving everyone a chance at making the Test team.

"I am now 100 per cent fit and raring to go and am looking forward to coming back to Newlands in Cape Town, where I played for the Hurricanes in Super 14 matches. It's a great stadium."

The fact that Ireland flanker Stephen Ferris and Wales wing Leigh Halfpenny are leaving the tour after sustaining serious injuries only highlights how close Flutey came to suffering the same fate.

He revealed the depth of his concern to his wife in New Zealand and admitted: "I told her I might have to join her in New Zealand because of the injury and, as usual, she told me to just get on with things. She's heard me say so often - after most games - that something is hurting on my body that it doesn't really worry her!

"It really was a funny sort of injury because it didn't start stiffening up until I was in my civvies about to go out with the boys.

"With the help of the medical team, I did everything possible to stay on tour and it was quite low just sitting in my room icing the area every two hours for the first three days. But, being 29 years old I know my body pretty well and it's almost a case of feeling the pain and taking a profession attitude.

"I was honest with the medical team all the way through and, on Monday, they expected me to be 70 per cent in training and I was about 95 per cent and able to run off line. In the match I didn't have any worries, took some tackles, stepped a bit and felt really good."

Flutey and the Lions will face a Western Province side with a proud tradition and previous success over the touring team, although their best players now operate under the Stormers banner in Super 14. They are still a dangerous outfit captained by Springbok forward Luke Watson, one of the most controversial figures in South African rugby.

Watson, who has 10 caps, caused serious unrest within the Springbok camp when he reportedly told a meeting last year he felt like vomiting on the national jersey because of the perceived influence white South Africans still had on the sport.

His father Cheeky Watson is the president of the Eastern Province union and has been a long standing thorn in the side of the old South African RFU by promoting multi-racial issues as a high profile anti-apartheid activist.

Current Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has insisted Watson has not made the squad to take on the Lions because his form is not good enough which should ensure a live wire performance from the back row forward tomorrow.