Vickery dropped for second Test

PHIL VICKERY has paid the price for his poor performance against South Africa last Saturday by being left out of the British and Irish Lions squad for the second Test.

Lions boss Ian McGeechan has made a total of five changes to the side that lost 26-21 to the world champions in Durban.

Full-back Rob Kearney, wing Luke Fitzgerald, hooker Matthew Rees, prop Adam Jones and lock Simon Shaw all gain call-ups for a game the Lions must win to retain any chance of taking the three-Test series.

Former Gloucester prop Vickery, who still lives in the county, is one of the quartet to be axed after being dominated by South Africa loosehead Tendai Mtawarira in the scrum.

And it is not just the Wasps tighthead that has been singled out for failing to cope with the power of the South African forwards either.

Fellow Englishman, Bath hooker Lee Mears, has also been chopped with McGeechan changing two thirds of his front row for the next game in Pretoria.

Ospreys tighthead Jones now has the task of coping with Mtawarira instead of 2003 World Cup winner Vickery, with countryman Rees packing down instead of Mears alongside Jones and Gethin Jenkins.

It is the first time the Lions have started an official Test match with an all-Wales front-row since 1955.

Kearney replaces Lee Byrne, who has been struggling with a foot injury, while Kearney's fellow Ireland Grand Slam winner Fitzgerald takes over from Ugo Monye.

The fifth change sees Wasps and England lock Simon Shaw preferred to Alun-Wyn Jones.