Youngs and Bowe Among Five Changes For Second Test

Ben Youngs and Tommy Bowe have been named in the British & Irish Lions team to face Australia in the second test in Melbourne.

Welsh Flanker Dan Lydiate also comes in to the side to replace Tom Croft, together with lock Goeff Parling and Mako Vunipola in a total of five changes from the first test.

The Briths & Irish Lions lead the test series 0-1 having beaten Australia 21-23 in a tense encounter in Brisbane last Saturday.

Tommy Bowe comes into the side following the remarkable recovery from injury to his hand.  Bowe fractured his metacarpal bone in his right hand and has had three screws inserted in it.  he will play with a hurling glove on Saturday.

Ben Youngs has been named as a replacement for Mike Phillips, who the Lions management went to great lengths to say was fit but was being rested as an injury precaution for the third test.

Youngs will appear alongside his brother Tom who become the first set of brothers to play in a Lions test together since Gavin and Scott Hastings in 1989.

Commenting on the number of changes to his side Lions head coach Warren Gatland said “I don’t know about not changing a winning side, it is about picking the best team to do the job for us.”

“We can win this series by winning on Saturday and that is what our whole focus needs to be. The last thing we want to do is think about it being 1-1 and having to play another game in Sydney. Everything for us is about Saturday night.”

The British & Irish Lions team to face Australia:

15: Leigh Halfpenny
14: Tommy Bowe
13: Brian O’Driscoll
12: Jonathan Davies
11: George North
10: Jonathan Sexton
9: Ben Youngs
8: Jamie Heaslip
7: Sam Warburton (c)
6: Dan Lydiate
5: Geoff Parling
4: Alun Wyn Jones
3: Adam Jones
2: Tom Youngs
1: Mako Vunipola

Replacements

16: Richard Hibbard
17: Ryan Grant
18: Dan Cole
19: Tom Croft
20: Sean O’Brien
21: Conor Murray
22: Owen Farrell
23: Alex Cuthbert