Lions vs Maori All Blacks: New Zealand believe Warren Gatland’s Test team is already decided as the tour starts to heat up

WARREN GATLAND is keeping his cards close to his chest and putting his best poker face on.

All Blacks boss Steve Hansen, on the other side of New Zealand, is already trying to call his bluff.

Lions chief Gatland has said from day one that he wouldn't show his best team for this New Zealand Maori game.

But he is a fool not to with such a short time to build a team.

Gatland should stick instead of twisting with his best side in an effort to bring them together after a mixed bag of tour results so far.

If the Lions go 1-0 down against the World Cup winners a week tomorrow then they might as well fly home straight away.

Gatland has shuffled his pack for the emotionally charged warm-up game at the Rotorua International Stadium tomorrow with Peter O'Mahony captaining the side and tour skipper Sam Warburton on the bench.

Wales’ Alun Wyn-Jones is not involved in tomorrow’s unofficial fourth Test and he has surely done enough to be included when the serious stuff starts.

Liam Williams, a Gatland go-to man, is not involved either but it is hard to think he won’t play a part next Saturday either.

Gatland explained it by saying : "We wanted to make a few changes, but reward a significant part of that team that played that beat the Crusaders."

But Hansen believes he knows exactly how Gatland will play the Test matches, as he only has one way of playing.

The All Blacks face Samoa at Eden Park tomorrow - but their coach has still found time to try to wind up his Lions counterpart.

Hansen said: “There might well be some things kept back, but the basics of their game isn’t going to change. It hasn’t changed since he has been coaching, has it?

“If you look at the basics of our game, we haven’t changed much either from when I took over. We all have our own style.”

Whilst O'Mahony and others like Ben Te'o have grabbed their chances on tour so far, Gatland has warned others that their opportunity might have gone.

He said: “We're all aware that you get one or two chances, and some people were lucky and for whatever reason you may be involved in a combination that goes really well.

“Sometimes you've got to reward that. And that's why we've gone with a lot of the combinations from last Saturday. Now we get to see if that's going to be a lot of the combinations for the first Test.

“They've just got to gel and keep working together. For the players who aren't involved the message is we've seen in the past how significantly the team can change from Test one to two to three.

"You never know when your chance is going to come."

Warburton is only on the bench, though he is the one player Gatland is hoping comes though to face the All Blacks at Eden Park a week tomorrow.

With Sean O'Brien in the flanker driving seat the Kiwi boss said: "Sam gets another chance on Saturday night to perform.
“He's well aware of the competition that is there at the moment.

“He fully understands that that loose forward trio went outstandingly well against the Crusaders.

“One of the reasons we selected him as captain of the squad is that he is an absolute quality player but also, this tour isn't about Sam it's about putting the squad first.

"So if he's not involved in the first Test because of the performance on Saturday night he will fully understand that.

“But he'll get some game time and some opportunity to keep improving his match fitness because he hasn't had a lot of rugby in recent weeks."

LIONS: Halfpenny; Watson, Davies, Te’o, North; Sexton, Murray; Vunipola, George, Furlong, Itoje, Kruis, O’Mahony (capt), O’Brien, Faletau. Reps: Owens, McGrath, Sinckler, Henderson, Warburton, Laidlaw, Biggar, Daly.