Sir Clive Woodward

I SUPPORT Warren Gatland’s decision to call up four players from the Wales squad — who were still in Auckland from Friday’s match against Tonga — and two from Scotland’s to help out in midweek against Waikato on Tuesday and the Hurricanes the week after.

It’s a simple hard-nosed practical decision. The midweek games on a Lions tour are irrelevant these days. For the 2017 Lions it is totally about preserving the Test 23. We all have to dial into that.

If Gatland felt there was a position which needed urgently covering in the Test 23, he wouldn’t have hesitated getting an Englishman from Argentina or an Irish player from Japan. And that could still happen if injuries hit the squad next week.

My only slight criticism of Gatland is that I wouldn’t even have mentioned the geographic element and I would perhaps have done it a little earlier because the need to wrap up the Test 23 in cotton wool next week was always known.