Ulster"s Tommy Bowe starts for British & Irish Lions

Ireland and Ulster winger, Tommy Bowe comes straight into the British Irish Lions to face Australia in the second Test series on Saturday.

The Lions have promoted Bowe, Ben Youngs and Dan Lydiate to their starting XV among five changes for the crucial second Test at the Etihad Stadium.

Bowe, who started all three Tests in South Africa in 2009, broke his hand three weeks ago but has made an astonishing recovery after undergoing surgery to repair the damage.

The 29-year-old will wear a hurling glove for protection and revealed that he faced intensive physiotherapy to put himself in contention for Saturday.

“To have fractured my hand and still be here and now go into one of the biggest matches of my career feels pretty surreal,” Bowe said,

“I feel fully primed and ready to go. I’ve been having physio three to four times a day and have been consistently icing my hand. It’s been a pretty frantic regime but it’s amazing how good my hand feels.

“I know I am capable of getting myself back up to match speed pretty quickly.”

Youngs replaces scrum-half Mike Phillips, Bowe forces right wing Alex Cuthbert onto the bench and Lydiate is preferred ahead of blindside flanker Tom Croft, who must also settle for a place among the replacements.

Completing the new arrivals are loosehead prop Mako Vunipola and lock Geoff Parling, who have profited from injuries to Alex Corbisiero and Paul O’Connell.

Ryan Grant, Sean O’Brien and Conor Murray have been included on the bench after missing last weekend’s 23-21 victory over Australia altogether.

Saturday’s teams:

Australia: K Beale (Melbourne Rebels); I Folau (New South Wales Waratahs), A Ashley-Cooper (New South Wales Waratahs), C Leali’ifano (Brumbies), J Tomane (Brumbies); J O’Connor (Melbourne Rebels), W Genia (Queensland Reds); B Robinson (New South Wales Waratahs), S Moore (Brumbies), B Alexander (Brumbies), K Douglas (New South Wales Waratahs), J Horwill (Queensland Reds, capt), B Mowen (Brumbies), M Hooper (Brumbies), W Palu (New South Wales Waratahs).

Replacements: S Fainga’a (Queensland Reds), J Slipper (Queensland Reds), S Kepu (New South Wales Waratahs), R Simmons (Queensland Reds), L Gill (Queensland Reds), N Phipps (Melbourne Rebels), R Horne (New South Wales Waratahs), J Mogg (Brumbies).

British and Irish Lions: L Halfpenny (Wales); T Bowe (Ireland), B O’Driscoll (Ireland), J Davies (Wales), G North (Wales); J Sexton (Ireland), B Youngs (England); M Vunipola (England), T Youngs (England), A Jones (Wales), A-W Jones (Wales), G Parling (England), D Lydiate (Wales), S Warburton (Wales, capt), J Heaslip (Ireland).

Replacements: R Hibbard (Wales), R Grant (Scotland), D Cole (England), T Croft (England), S O’Brien (Ireland), C Murray (Ireland), O Farrell (England), A Cuthbert (Wales).

Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa).

Assistant referees: Chris Pollock (New Zealand) and Romain Poite (France).

Article source: http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/opinion/rankin-and-lavery-must-now-build-on-mclauchlans-good-groundwork.21456211

Ulster"s Tommy Bowe starts for British & Irish Lions