RUGBY LIONS TOUR:SUCH IS the attrition rate among the Lions squad at the end of a gruelling nine-month season and six-week tour that the management have felt compelled to augment four injury-enforced changes with another four of their own choosing. Alas, little about the tour suggests they have the strength in depth for such surgery, writes GERRY THORNLEYin Johannesburg

Offsetting this, however, has been the decision by Pieter de Villiers to make 10 changes to the side which completed a series win with last Saturday’s dramatic 28-25 victory in Pretoria. No doubt the 30 protagonists will be seriously up for it come 3pm local time on Saturday, but with Ellis Park yet to be sold out and a decidedly makeshift look to both line-ups, this game is rapidly looking like the deadest of dead rubbers.

With Jamie Roberts (wrist) joining Brian O’Driscoll, Gethin Jenkins and Adam Jones as hors de combat, Ian McGeechan and co have opted for Riki Flutey to partner Tommy Bowe in midfield. More surprisingly, in addition to recalling Ugo Monye on the right wing they have promoted Shane Williams for Luke Fitzgerald on the left.

Up front, as predicted, Andrew Sheridan and Phil Vickery replace the injured Welsh props, but utterly unexpectedly Tom Croft and David Wallace have been demoted to the bench, with Joe Worsley and Martyn Williams picked to start. Croft and Wallace have been accommodated in a 5-2 bench, where James Hook replaces Ronan O’Gara. John Hayes will almost certainly feature at some point off the bench, which would mean him emulating Flutey and Worsley in making his Lions’ Test debut, in his case at the ripe young age of 35.

The net result is a host of new combinations. Neither the back three, the midfield, the frontrow or backrow have played together before. McGeechan and his coaches have picked four Wasps players, including three of the pack; the same Wasps team that finished eighth in the English Premiership. Coupled with six of the Welsh side, the coaches do appear to have opted for players they know the most.

Fortunate to even make the cut for the original squad, quite what Shane Williams – who has been afforded four starts and three replacement appearances – has done to earn this call-up is a moot point. Ditto Worsley, who has also made a limited impression in five starts to date on tour.

“A lot of emotion and physical work went into those first two (Tests) so we wanted some fresh legs for this one,” explained McGeechan. Asked to shed some light on the change at left wing, McGeechan merely said: “Defensively we wanted to do a bit more,” which suggests that Fitzgerald has been held culpable for the defensive glitch that let in JP Pietersen for the Springboks’ first try last Saturday.

Vickery arguably needs psychological counselling as well as Graham Rowntree’s technical coaching in readiness for renewing acquaintances with Tendai Mtawarira after his “beasting” in the first Test. “Very confident” that Vickery can put that mortifying experience behind him, McGeechan said: “He’s a world-class prop. I think the refereeing has been pretty good in that area in the second and third Tests.”

This clearly implied that Bryce Lawrence’s refereeing contributed to the difficulties the Lions scrum, and Vickery in particular, suffered in Durban. When pressed McGeechan said: “There’s some issues which we’ve clarified which I think have led to the scrums being far more stable.”

When the subject of Jaque Fourie’s unproven claims that he was gouged by an unnamed Lions player was raised, McGeechan said: “I’d be very surprised if that was the case.”

The Lions must win at Ellis Park to avoid suffering a Test series whitewash for the first time in 118 years of fixtures between the sides, and while this is a weakened line-up, the same would appear to be the case with the Springboks.

In addition to the two changes forced by the suspensions of Schalk Burger and Bakkies Botha, whose appeal was rejected yesterday, de Villiers clearly had one eye on the upcoming Tri-Nations in making a further eight changes.

Bulls fullback Zane Kirchner will make his debut in the number 15 jersey, while Odwa Ndungane, Jaque Fourie, Wynand Olivier, Jongi Nokwe and Morne Steyn all come in to a backline that includes just one player – scrumhalf Fourie de Preez – who started last Saturday. There are four new faces amongst the forwards where Chiliboy Ralepelle, Johann Muller, Heinrich Brussow and Ryan Kankowski all come in.

De Villiers’ fourth press conference since last Saturday’s full-time whistle had passed relatively smoothly until the final question, when he unleashed an extraordinary broadside at the British media. “I won’t change my style. If I change my style I change Pieter de Villiers and I go back to God and say ‘listen you made a bad job’. And I can’t do that, and that’s bad of me as a person. I’ll just be the best I can be. I allowed some of the negative media from Britain, they did it in 1974, they did it in 1980 and hell I allowed it again in 2009. What a stupid bugger I am.”

“What I learned is that if they can’t beat you anyhow else they will show their superiority anywhere in the world and it will make them feel good. It’s a long thing, it came from years back you know. So I won’t change myself. What I will do is keep my feet on the ground, be humble and be a good servant of this game.”

You couldn’t make it up.