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It is a boisterous day in Cape Town, occasionally the sun emerges but at least six or seven times today everything has gone dark and it has chucked it down.

It is a crying shame that both the jewels for Cape Town visitors are off-limits today.

Sailings to Robben Island have been cancelled because of heavy seas. You can only hope for the sake of thousands of Lions visitors that the weather improves tomorrow because a trip to the island and listen to ex-prisoners talk you round the place and see Nelson Mandela's cell is awesome.

My only problem when I did the trip was a phobia of small boats and huge seas. When I got there, I was shaking so much that I asked to be incarcerated in the cell so I did not have to make the return journey.

Also deemed out of bounds is the cable-car up to the top of Table Mountain, the great flat-topped monolith which dominates the skyline here.

On reasonable days, the mountain stands wearing its tablecloth, a covering of white clouds that seem to balance on its long summit. Today the mountain has been hidden all day.

And it will not be at all easy in the wet and wind for either the emerging Springboks or the Lions to make much of an impression at Newlands this evening.

A great shame, since there are aspirants on both sides set upon bigger things. Presumably, four men in particular would like to shine through the gloom for the Lions tonight. They are Ronan O'Gara, Nathan Hines, Martyn Williams and Andrew Powell.

There is just a chance of Test selection for them all, with Powell the longest shot. His form did not quite merit Test selection although the widespread disappointment at the lack of impact made by Jamie Heaslip in Durban last Saturday was rather disturbing.

Perhaps Heaslip will find his feet in Pretoria on Saturday.

You can look at the second row situation in any number of ways. The consensus at dinner last night amongst a group containing two international forwards and one of the great backs of all time - together with two senior journalists who naturally were hanging on every word - was that either Hines or Simon Shaw must be brought in to the second row in Pretoria to add some devil, bulk and fire.

It could be that Hines has taken the lead or that Shaw, who is on the bench tonight, is being rested with a view to inclusion, at least amongst the replacements, for the second Test.

Naturally, the other question surrounds who the chosen man may replace. The candidate for the axe appears to be Alyn-Wyn Jones, on the basis that the Lions could not consider dropping Paul O'Connell the captain.

A reluctance to discard the captain has saved quite a few Lions leaders who were doing a far worse job on their tours than O'Connell.

But the sight of him grinding the ball up very slowly from a standing start as first receiver does not make him immune in any way from the chop.

For the moment, let us hope that the match is played during a window of decent weather and that the touring team ends its programme of provincial games with a resounding victory.

Stephen will respond to more of your comments in tomorrow's e-mail, as well as reflecting on tonight's game against the Emerging Springboks.