THE happiest people in rugby now that the dust has settled on the British Lions squad, apart from the players chosen of course, will be the Australians.

For they will take on the Lions this summer without the player they fear most Scott Gibbs.

That is bound to make them breathe a bit easier as they now really start to wind up to the serious business ahead.

Australia are world champions and they are the only country to have earned that accolade twice, so they represent a heck of a challenge for the Lions.

But the reality is they are in a transitional period, they have lost a number of key players and there are fitness doubts about some.

Skipper John Eales' future, for example, is uncertain after a serious injury while there are concerns about the front row strength.

So the Aussies are not exactly brimful of their normal confidence.

And who would be the player to take advantage of any uncharacteristic hesitancy?

None other than Gibbs. He's a true Lion, he's done it before, he loves the big occasion, he positively rises to it, and he likes nothing better than to scatter opposition which might be a bit cocky.

But is Gibbs on the tour? No he's not. Instead there is one Rob Henderson of Ireland, untried and unproven, hardly likely to cause a stir Down Under.

Yet Graham Henry of' all people, is at the helm for the Lions, and having got 10 Welshmen on the tour, which has surprised everyone, including people here, he couldn't find room for Gibbs.

Though Henry replaced Gibbs in France after a below par performance, he is a known admirer of the player but yet he didn't go for the battleship in midfield, the player who forced his way in for the Lions in 1993 and four years later scattered Springboks to all parts of South Africa.

The arguments go that Gibbs is past his best, he's no longer effective and his battering ram style is out of date, especially on the firm grounds of Australia.

But when the going gets tough, and it surely will in the land of the world champions, Gibbs is just the man to have on your side, someone who will pull the troops together, someone you can count on.

It may be a bit rich pinpointing horsetrading as a factor given that there are 10 Welsh players on the tour, but could it be that the presence of Ireland's Lions manager Donal Lenihan was a factor here?

It's not just Henderson, but what is Irish lock Jeremy Davidson doing on the tour? A success he was in South Africa four years ago and he's still a formidable player as he has shown for Castres against Newport, but he hasn't played international rugby this season.

And the Scots are up in arms with just three representatives given that they drew with Wales this season, scoring three tries to one, but have been outvoted 10-3 by Welshmen in the Lions tour party.

One of those is a complete outsider in back row forward Simon Taylor who can hardly expect to feature, but then neither can others.

It's the shortest Lions tour on record with just 10 matches, yet there's also the highest number of players ever to go with the Lions, all 37 of them.

Given that the likely Test team is likely to need a warm-up match or two, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to forecast a number of players will go all that way around the world to play just two games. Madness!

How many games will the third hooker or the third scrum half play? He'll probably be reduced to drinks waiter round the hotel pool.