One of the most painful memories from my schooldays was the prolonged torture of being left in the playground on my lunch break, looking on as the cool kids picked all my friends ahead of me for the lunch break football match desperately wishing I could be selected.

A similar scenario, albeit with reversed emotions, would have occurred on Monday morning in a South African hotel as British and Irish Lions coach Ian McGeechan named his team to play against the Southern Kings just four days before the first test.

The whole squad knew that selection in the starting line-up would leave little hope of making the test XV. A place on the bench meant you’re likely to be involved in the test 22 and being left out for Tuesday meant you’re a test certainty.

Armed with that rule of thumb, we can now expect the Lions team to face South Africa in Durban to be the following:

15-Lee Byrne, 14-Tommy Bowe, 13-Brian O’Driscoll, 12-Jamie Roberts, 11-Ugo Monye, 10-Stephen Jones, 9-Mike Phillips; 8-Jamie Heaslip, 7-Martyn Williams, 6-Tom Croft, 5-Paul O’Connell, 4-Alun Wyn Jones, 3-Phil Vickery, 2-Lee Mears, 1-Gethin Jenkins.

Locks Simon Shaw and Nathan Hines and Irish winger Luke Fitzgerald are the only players who have any realistic hope of changing McGeechan’s mind but it will take a very memorable performance against the Kings, unless there is an injury.

PHOTO: A rugby fan with the colours of the South African flag painted on his face looks on before the start of the opening match of the Lions tour, May 30, 2009. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko