At least the Lions did not tempt fate to an even greater degree yesterday. They had been due to spend a day yachting on the Solent, building up the team spirit so necessary if they are to be successful in their tour to South Africa, but after losing five members of the original tour party to injury or disciplinary issues, they stayed away from the water.

One of their earliest predecessors, Bob Seddon, capsized and drowned while sculling on the Hunter River during the 1888 visit to Australia and New Zealand. Instead the squad adopted less active — and drier — pursuits on their day off while the management pondered replacements for the latest injury victims, Jerry Flannery and Leigh Halfpenny. They had hoped to confirm the two newest Lions yesterday but will do so instead today.

They know the candidates well enough, at hooker and back three, but the decision will be determined ultimately by the need for a goalkicker. The Lions are faced, in any case, with the prospect of both their fly halves, Stephen Jones and Ronan O’Gara, being involved in every game, either in the starting XV or on the bench, because they are so short of kickers of genuine class; Riki Flutey could relieve either Jones or O’Gara as a potential No 10 but he has not kicked at goal regularly since leaving London Irish for London Wasps two years ago.

Halfpenny, the youngest of the original squad, has a long and accurate boot but his thigh injury means that he will not be available to the party until at least the third match, against the Sharks on June 10. It is a big blow for the Cardiff Blues wing, not least because it opens the door for another player who may seize his opportunity well enough to go all the way to the starting XV against the Springboks.

This in part accounts for the delay in naming two further players, even though the Lions fly out to Johannesburg on Sunday and play their first match on May 30. The Lions management seeks to avoid the drip-drip of bad news on a daily basis and it would rather make a tidy statement that, though it closes the door on the unfortunate Flannery — just as it did Tomás O’Leary and Tom Shanklin earlier in the month — opens another for his successor, whether it be Ross Ford, Rory Best or the experienced George Chuter, who seems likely to start for Leicester against Leinster in the Heineken Cup final tomorrow.

But if goalkicking determines Halfpenny’s replacement and there are only two specialist fly halves, it opens the debate beyond the back three. Gerald Davies, the tour manager, will recall the 1971 Lions for whom he played; they beat New Zealand with both fly halves, Barry John and Mike Gibson, in the first-choice XV.

Gibson played inside centre, so it is far from fanciful to suggest that James Hook or Danny Cipriani have claims as good as those of Delon Armitage or Chris Paterson.

Ian McGeechan, the head coach, has been looking at potential combinations for a year now and, invariably, comes up with something from left field — such as an international XV featuring Neil Jenkins, a goalkicking fly half, at full back for the 1997 Lions against South Africa. So he will be considering an individual who will blend well with the rest of the back division, off the field as well as on, and who can be adapted to the team’s requirements in South African conditions.

Although a senior players’ committee has yet to be formulated, both because of the enforced changes to the original squad of 37 and the absence on European duty of seven more Lions, the decision not to go sailing came from the players. The need to maximise training gave the squad a hard day on Wednesday even before the official farewell dinner in London. They want to have a hard session today and the players themselves suggested that the trip to and from Portsmouth plus six hours on the Solent would have worked against that end.

- Martin Corry, a Lion of 2001 and 2005, will lead the Barbarians against an England XV at Twickenham on May 30 and, a week later, against Australia in Sydney. Corry will have his two children, Eve and Edward, as team mascots on his last appearance in England before retirement.