Welshman Martyn Williams had been in pole position, but the Lions’ 19-13 defeat against a pumped-up New Zealand Maori side opened the door for Back, who has not played since landing a four-week ban for punching ex-England colleague Joe Worsley during last month’s Zurich Premiership final at Twickenham.

“One of the world’s best openside flankers is playing on Wednesday night,” said Woodward, after naming a near Test-strength team that includes Back’s fellow tour ’debutants’ Jonny Wilkinson, Jason Robinson, Gareth Thomas and Simon Easterby.

“I think you will see a super-charged performance from him.

“We had always targeted this game to pick a pretty strong team. Wednesday’s game is a big match in terms of getting Test selection right.”

Back, still displaying a ravenous appetite for the game ahead of his summer retirement, will hope to speed up Lions’ possession from rucks and help them prove a far more effective unit at the breakdown – areas where they have struggled badly so far.

The Maori heavily outmuscled Woodward’s men in Hamilton on Saturday, which hardly augers well for a Test series when the tourists will encounter such revered All Blacks forwards as Richie McCaw and Jerry Collins.

“It has been clear in the last three games that New Zealand teams are a little bit more physical in the contact area,” said Maori flanker Marty Holah.

“It’s a frustrating area of the game. I know when it doesn’t go right for our team, it’s something you whinge about yourself. It’s a fact of life – if you don’t clear bodies at ruck time, then you are going to struggle.”

Following their resounding defeat against the Maori, the Lions’ morale could take a fearful bashing if they come unstuck for a second time in five days.

Fly-half Wilkinson’s presence though, should help ensure that does not happen as he makes a second appearance in the representative arena since World Cup 2003 following his comeback during the Lions’ pre-tour game against Argentina.

Given Wilkinson’s prolonged post-World Cup injury problems, the mere sight of him wearing a Lions number 10 shirt in New Zealand will be worth savouring.

“It hasn’t been frustrating for me,” he said, assessing a patient wait for Woodward’s call, after fellow fly-halves Ronan O’Gara, Charlie Hodgson and Stephen Jones all headed him in the queue.

“Part of it has been trying to take it all in and enjoy the whole atmosphere that has been created here. It is an opportunity not to be missed, I think, and like anyone else, it is not a chance I want to waste.

“Being able to train, for me, makes my life so much simpler and easier. But nothing lets you know where you stand, more than being out out there under the pressure, under the lights and to show yourself how you are really playing.

“This, for me, has got to be about everything I have got, then when I wake up on Thursday morning, it’s going to be a case of preparing for my next opportunity. Undoubtedly, there is a need to keep momentum going,” Wilkinson added.

“Nobody cares more about this tour or this squad than the players on it and the management. That’s being shown by the effort being put in every day to try and get everything right and the players perfectly prepared to give their best.”

The Lions squad arrived in Christchurch last night following a delayed flight from Auckland – but they did not walk into a row about them filming last week’s Test between New Zealand and Fiji.

Lions backroom staff were asked to stop videoing the game from the stands at North Harbour Stadium in Albany on grounds of broadcasting rights.

Woodward claimed only about six minutes of the action had been taped, but added: “I have always done it – for seven years. It’s nothing new.”

And a relaxed All Blacks counterpart Henry countered: “I couldn’t care less... obviously, we don’t want people in our hotel spying and things like that.”