Lions Tour: Gordon D'Arcy's hopes of being added to the British and Irish Lions squad faded this morning when head coach Ian McGeechan confirmed he would not be calling up a replacement for the injured Tom Shanklin. Alan Quinlan, however, has excercised his right to appeal the 12-week suspension that currently rules him out of the Tour.
Quinlan was last week found to be in breach of Law 10.4 (k), after making contact with the eye area of Leinster's Leo Cullen during the Heineken Cup semi-final at Croke Park on May 2nd.
The 34-year-old's appeal is expected to be heard on Wednesday, with the Lions due to travel to South Africa on Sunday and the first match against a Royal XV selection scheduled for the following Saturday.
If Quinlan is unsuccesful, England flanker Tom Croft looks set to replace him.
Shanklin was ruled out of the tour to South Africa after suffering a dislocated shoulder against the Newport Gwent Dragons on May 6th and Leinster and Ireland centre D'Arcy had been touted as a possible replacement.
But, as the players assembled in London this morning, McGeechan said that he felt there was enough cover in the current panel and will now travel to take on the world champions with the 36 players at his disposal.
"When we selected the extra player back in April we were really trying to cover all our bases regarding the Heineken Cup final, where we could have been without 16 players," McGeechan explained.
"As it's transpired, for the first two tour games we can cover the squad and really we want to give the opportunity and the responsibility to the players who are there to try to fill that role.
"Going back to 36 just gives us the chance to give players and combinations a bit more game time which is so important with so little time before the first test," added McGeechan.
Bakkies Botha, meanwhile, has been cited for allegedly striking an opponent during the Bulls dramatic win over the Sharks in the Super 14 at the weekend.
The South African secondrow has been cited following an incident with Ryan Kankowski but while a potential ban could rule him out of the forthcoming Super 14 semi-final against the Crusaders he will be available to face the Lions in the test series.
