CORNISHMAN Luke Cowan-Dickie has been named on the bench for the latest British and Irish Lions fixture against the Queensland Reds at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Wednesday (July 2).

The Sale Sharks and England hooker started the warm-up friendly defeat against Argentina and watched on as Andy Farrell’s side started life Down Under on Saturday with a 54-7 victory over the Western Force.

Of the starting XV that took to the field in Perth, only fly-half Finn Russell retains his place for this latest encounter.

England’s Maro Itoje returns to captain the side, which also includes Ireland’s Hugo Keenan and Jamison Gibson-Park for their first appearances on tour at full-back and scrum-half.

Gibson-Park, who is in for the luckless Tomos Williams who has now been ruled out of the entire tour with a hamstring injury, is someone Farrell is keen to see in action.

“I don’t say this lightly, he is 100 per cent a world-class player and he will make any team better and tick,” said the Lions head coach “His point of difference is his speed of play – he sees things nice and early.

“He is quiet but when he speaks, it is worth listening because he has done his homework and he understands how it is that we want to play.”

Farrell also gave special mention to Williams, adding: “We’re not just going to miss an outstanding player, we’re going to miss the bloke. We have only been together for a few weeks now but his character is everything you want to have in your group on a Lions tour.”

Elsewhere, the Exeter Chiefs trio of Ross Vintcent, Stephen Varney and Zambonin all featured for Italy in their 73-6 victory over Namibia in Windhoek on Friday night.

Scrum-half Varney grabbed one of the Azzurri’s 11 tries, as well as a conversion.