No standing on how the Lions’

Gatland has to start with Johnny Sexton because he’s a better player. He was the orchestrator of the conquest of Australia and last autumn was a pivotal figure in Ireland beating the All Blacks for the first time in history to end their world record winning streak.

Sexton is a tactical controller New Zealand respect and out-played Beauden Barrett in Chicago.

Farrell is a manufactured player and I’d argue Wales play-maker Dan Biggar has performed better than him at outside-half during this tour.

Sure, Farrell has improved since playing second-fiddle to Sexton in Australia for the Lions but benefits when he plays at No.10 with Saracens from the armchair ride provided by Europe’s top club pack.

Sexton sees things early and was masterful in the 32-10 walloping of the Maori All Blacks in Rotorua. A FASCINATING insight has been provided on how the six new arrivals in the Lions squad have been integrated into the camp.

Welsh quartet Cory Hill, Tomas Francis, Kristian Dacey and Gareth Davies came on board on Saturday, while Scottish duo Finn Russell and Allan Dell joined up the following day.

All six went straight onto the bench for today’s clash with the Chiefs at Stadium Waikato in Hamilton.

As “late arrivals”, they have had to go through an initiation process, rolling the dice to decide on a forfeit.

That has resulted in one of the Welsh four having to wear a suit for three days, while the others have had to do a two minute “performance” in front of the rest of the squad.

Experienced England back rower James Haskell says the six new members have fitted smoothly into the Lions set-up.

“They have been straight in,” said the eloquent Wasps flanker.

“They have had two training runs to get involved in the mix and we have had many a walk through.

“The boys have been fully embroiled straight away. A couple of them had to roll the dice and one of them is wearing a suit for the next three days.

“There is no standing on ceremony, that is the important thing with this squad.

“It’s not a get to know you, ‘Hi, my name’s James Haskell, my favourite colour is red and I play for Wasps.’

“You’ve got to get straight in, you’ve got to learn the calls, you’ve got to get right in the mix and that’s the way you do it.

“Some boys have never met, but you just shake the hand, you get in, you train, you do a little review.

“Communication the most important thing in any sport and especially a team sport, just relaying those little messages, constantly going over things.

“It’s being able to turn to a friend or a team-mate you don’t know and go ‘Listen mate, I need you to do this, are you happy with that, can we go for a coffee, can we talk about it.’

“That’s the way it goes and everyone has is been adopted into the family pretty quickly. “It’s about having a coffee, it’s sitting at meal time together. “I sat down at the computer the other day and Cory was asking me about lineouts. “I don’t know why he thought I was the man to ask about lineouts, but I shared the knowledge I have. That is what a team is about. “Everything else in your life can be in turmoil and you can take to the training field with 25 of your mates, train, play, put yourself through hell and everything else is put on hold.” There has been criticism over the six new recruits being selected more on proximity than ability, but Haskell says the politics of the situation is for others to debate.

“When the ball is rolling and you are in the mix, you don’t really worry too much about those kind of things,” he said.

“You have got team-mates coming on board who are buying into what the Lions is about.

“When they are asked to train, they train as hard as they can and when they are asked to make account of themselves and deliver a performance they do thar. That’s what really matters.

“The politics of situations like that, being a professional rugby player, you can out your head down and just crack on with the job. Life is way too short to be worrying about other things and stuff like that.

“You bring guys in, that was always the plan, they are good boys, get on with it. That’s all that matters and make the most of it and let you lot worry about all that.”

As for how the new recruits will fare if called into action against the Chiefs, Haskell is confident they will give their all.

“Those boys when asked to put on a Lions shirt will grow by six inches, raise the intensity and want to play their hearts out because it’s a once in a lifetime thing,” he said.

“It’s something you want to remember, so when you look back on your rugby career, you know that