Jet-lagged British miss out on Hollywood

The difficulties facing the Great Britain team with less than a week to prepare for Friday's one-off Test against Australia in Sydney were underlined yesterday when two players were unable to take part in their first training session because of jet lag.

Wigan's Paul Johnson and the Leeds centre Keith Senior were both feeling dizzy, with Senior also suffering from a sore back after the 24-hour journey from Manchester via Heathrow and Bangkok.

But Keiron Cunningham and the captain Andy Farrell, who had been the two major injury concerns before the squad left last Friday morning, both played a full part in a light session on an unusually warm winter's day in Manly.

David Waite, Great Britain's Australian coach, will announce his 17 for the game today, although he is likely to keep his starting 13 a secret until an hour before kick-off on Friday.

Australia have already named their team, but recriminations over selection continued yesterday.

In a throwback to previous Lions tours, Queenslanders feel that their success in the State of Origin series - which they retained with a 1-1 draw after the third match was drawn - has not been recognised, with 11 of the 17-man squad hailing from New South Wales, including the captain Andrew Johns.

Gorden Tallis, the Queensland second-row who was Johns's major rival for the captaincy, led the criticism. "The series was very even; you could expect to have eight or nine from each state."

It has emerged that the four Queenslanders on the 10-man selection panel did push for the inclusion of two of their Origin stars, Dane Carlaw and Petero Civoniceva, but the six New South Welshmen - including the chairman Colin Love, who has the casting vote - preferred Jason Stevens and Willie Mason, who had not even played in the series.

However, that row was overshadowed by the news that the game's leading referee, Bill "Hollywood" Harrigan, has been dropped to reserve grade after sin-binning four Parramatta players in their defeat by Johns's Newcastle Knights last weekend.

Britain's leading referee Russell Smith will now take charge of Friday's game.

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