No replacement for Shanklin

Northampton refused to release Scotland prop Euan Murray for a five-hour session of handshakes, introductions, planning and sponsors commitments. And Alan Quinlan remained in Ireland awaiting his appeal against the 12-week suspension he received last week for making contact with the eye area of Leinster's Leo Cullen.

Shanklin was ruled out of the South Africa tour after suffering a dislocated shoulder and McGeechan's decision will come as a disappointment to potential replacements such as Delon Armitage and Gordon D'Arcy.

McGeechan had originally named a 37-man squad to cover the possibility of 14 Lions being involved in Saturday's Heineken Cup final if Munster and Cardiff had both reached Murrayfield.

But with only five Lions involved in Leinster's clash with Leicester on Saturday, McGeechan decided he would trim the party back down to help accelerate the squad's development.

The Lions only have six games before the first Test and McGeechan said: "With the short run-up to that first Test it is getting that balance to give players game time.

"The way it has fallen with the European Cup final it has allowed us to free up a few other players, particularly in that 13 channel.

"Luke Fitzgerald and Keith Earls can play there and we knew that when we picked the squad.

"I didn't see the necessity to bring someone else out at 13 without giving the opportunity to the players that we have got. By going back to 36 players it does up the game time for some of them."