IAIN Balshaw has criticised rugby union's crowded fixture list ahead of the British Lions' game against Western Australia tomorrow.

The 22-year-old from Blackburn has been out with a shoulder injury and hadn't trained for three weeks prior to meeting up with the squad and travelling to Australia last week.

And the former Stonyhurst pupil -- who would have been a strong contender for a place in the starting line-up -- has only made the bench for tomorrow's game, the 2001 tour opener, because of his time out injured.

"I have had a shoulder injury and I haven't done any contact work for three weeks," said the Bath full-back.

"But I've had a rest and I've been back in training this week, doing contact stuff again.

"I didn't think I'd start the game against Western Australia though because I think they (coaches Graham Henry and Andy Robinson) wanted me to have a rest."

There was widespread criticism of the end-of-season Zurich Premiership play offs, which many thought were unnecessary in light of the number of games players were being asked to play.

Big stars such as Will Greenwood and Lawrence Dallaglio also suffered injuries in the latter stages of the season.

"There are too many games," said Balshaw, who has 11 England caps. "I think everyone agrees there are too many games and at the end of the season especially it is hard and players do pick up knocks.

"But these are our roles, you just have to get on with it.

"In an ideal world it would be great if they could reduce the number of games we played but you can't change them, you just have get on with it."

When the Lions squad met up just a fortnight ago, players who had just weeks earlier been arch enemies in the Six Nations were then expected to be the best of team mates.

As part of England's Six Nations side, Balshaw battled against the likes of Wales's Scott Quinnell and Ireland's Brian O'Driscoll but now he finds that they are all fighting the same corner.

There are 18 England, 10 Wales, six Ireland and three Welsh internationals in the squad.

"There are 37 world class players there and we have bonded well," he said. "We are professional about it, everyone just gets on with it.

"We have come together and we have had a good time.

"I don't find it difficult to mix with players from Wales or Scotland or Ireland.

"We are Lions now, you can't go thinking about your home country. It is just a game of rugby after all.

"You have to put up or shut up."

The Lions coaches have been putting the squad through their paces in preparation for the three Test games against Australia and the seven other matches the side will be expected to play during the six-week tour.

"But it has been very hard work," said Balshaw. "We have been training hard."

The opener against Western Australia could be the easiest of the matches, but Balshaw refuses to call any of the, 'warm-up games'.

"I definitely wouldn't call them that.

"We don't know much about Western Australia, we have been concentrating on our own game.

"But we are playing Super 12 teams in our other games, top teams like Queensland and New South Wales and they will all want to beat us."