When it comes to making statements, Gavin Henson is in a class of his own.

Heıd already stamped his mark on the Lions tour with his coloured hair, enhanced tan and celebrity girlfriend who breezed in for one of the games.

As a heroic member of Walesı Six Nations winning team, he patently saw himself playing a leading role in Sir Clive Woodwardıs Test campaign against the All Blacks.

That is until Sir Clive banished him to Invercargill for Tuesday nightıs game. Those who made the trek to the worldıs southernmost city were told they would not be considered for the test squad.

Henson was devastated (his own words) and wore a defiant I-am-not-amused look on his face throughout the game against Southland in which he scored his teamıs only two tries. Without him, the tourists might well have been embarrassed.

Henson didnıt give the impression he was wholeheartedly representing Great Britain and Ireland. It was far more of a "Hey, Clive, I hope youıre taking notes" performance.

And afterwards when approached by the media he looked thoroughly disconsolate.

"Unless there is a loss or an injury," he said, "Iım not sure Iıll be able to get back in there."

Realising what heıd said, he hastily added, "I want them to win", although it wasnıt spoken with absolute commitment.

Iıve travelled with All Black sides for more than three decades and I cannot ever recall any player sounding off after missing test selection like Henson has done.

The reason he's been condemned to midweek status, of course, is because the Lions have daringly chosen to use Jonny Wilkinson at inside centre.

The wisdom of that strategy will be revealed on Saturday evening, but there are a lot of New Zealanders extremely sceptical.

A handful of days out from the first test, New Zealanders remain totally bemused by the Lions. Apart from brief flashes of brilliance, they have muddled through most of their games.

And so it was against Southland, a team that managed just one victory (against bottom-placed Northland) in last seasonıs NPC.

The back play, until Chris Cusiter and Tom Shanklin arrived to sharpen things up, ranged from average to dreadful.

An unbelievable number of passes missed their target with halfback Gareth Cooper the chief offender. He wonıt be ordering a video of this game to take home and show off.

The Lions should have had this game all wrapped up by halftime, given the amount of quality lineout possession Simon Shaw, Donncha OıCallaghan and Lewis Moody won.

But the 'last pass syndrome' that the Lions management have bemoaned all tour plagued them again, allowing Southland to hang in at 10-all after 50 minutes and 16-23 going into the final moments.

Fortunately for the tourists, Ronan OıGara was accurate with his goalkicking and Henson was lethal anywhere near the goalline.

It was a free-moving spectacle that kept the near capacity crowd of 19,000 entertained throughout, although as the Lions assistant coach Ian McGeechan commented, "We kept them in the game with our mistakes."

And so the Lions road show rolls on to Christchurch. Are they a team of limited ability, as so many of their performances might suggest? or have they been deliberately disguising their true talents, saving themselves for the Test series?

That stunning opening stanza against Bay of Plenty way back at the beginning of June suggests they are more than adequately equipped to pursue the running game than events in the Saturday games at Hamilton and Dunedin have revealed.

Or are they simply planning to squeeze the life out of the All Black forwards and kick for the corners on Saturday?

Weıll just have to wait and see!