Australia boss fires back at Lions chief as player selection ignites debate over agreement

Australia head coach Joe Schmidt has fired back at the British and Irish Lions chief executive after he warned him to release the Wallabies' best players to their clubs or risk breaking the tour agreement.

The Lions have landed in Perth ahead of the first game on Australian soil against the Western Force on Saturday. Ahead of the First Test, which takes place on July 19, Andy Farrell's men will play all of the Super Rugby sides. There is an expectation that all of the warm-up games will be played against teams who are fully loaded with their Australian internationals - something that was outlined before the tour began.

Lions chief Calveley declared: “The agreement is very clear; it says that Test players have to be released to play in fixtures leading into that series. That is our expectation.”

The Western Force have been bolstered by having Nick Champion de Crespigny, Dylan Pietsch, Tom Robertson, Darcy Swain and Nic White back in camp, but fly-half Ben Donaldson and flanker Carlo Tizzano have been retained by Australia and won't face the Lions. The pair are both in contention to play in the First Test.

Schmidt has hit back at the comments from the Lions camp and reminded them that Farrell will not be told to play his strongest team every week and the tour agreement never stated that "every Wallaby from a state or a club has to be available to play every game".

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He told the Sydney Morning Herald: “In reality, the Lions have got their squad, are they going to play their best team every week? That’s unlikely. So are we going to play all the same players every week? I’m not sure whether (coach) Andy (Farrell) was part of that discussion or whether it was just coming from the CEO, but I’ve read the tours agreement.

"And it’s having the best intention to have the highest quality players available and playing. It’s not as specific as saying every Wallaby from a state or a club has to be available to play every game that the Lions come through on.”

After playing in Perth the Lions take on the Reds in Brisbane then the Waratahs in Sydney with the Brumbies the final club side they'll take on when they head to Canberra. Australia play their first warm-up match against Fiji in Newcastle on July 6.

Due to the schedules of the Lions and Australia not totally aligning Farrell faces the prospect of not coming up against the likes of Joseph Sua'ali'i until the Test series starts. Other major figures could also be held back if Schmidt's comments are anything to go by.

“There’s some serious plate spinning at the moment, trying to get ready,” Schmidt said. “The ambition is there’ll be some going back to the Reds, and some going back to the Waratahs. The Reds, you’ve got a lot of guys there who played for the Wallabies last year. And some of them are returning from injury and we wanted them to play anyway."