JOE Philbin is ready to impose his unorthodox, all-action style upon New Zealand if, as expected, he features for Great Britain on Saturday.

The Warrington Wolves prop has been named among the interchanges in Wayne Bennett’s initial 21-man team to face the Kiwis in Auckland – a squad that will be trimmed to 19 on Friday.

> Philbin and Clark set to face Kiwis

An appearance in the red, white and blue jersey would cap a superb year for the 24-year-old, who catapulted himself into Bennett’s plans with some stellar performances at club level.

Now, he wants to make sure he takes his chance.

“I’m buzzing to be in the squad but I’m not here to make up the numbers. I’m here to play Test matches,” he said.

“If I get the chance, I’ll grab it with both hands.

“I’ll run onto that ball at 100 miles an hour.”

Philbin was forced to watch from the stands as the Lions lost the opening game of their four-Test tour on Saturday.

He missed out on the 21-man squad altogether for the 14-6 defeat to a Tongan Invitational XIII in Hamilton and admits it was a tough watch for him.

“It looked like a ruthless game,” he said.

“It’s never nice being up in the stands watching – you want to be out there doing your thing.

“I thought we showed a lot of grit and determination as the Tongans had a lot of field position, but we never gave in and our defensive attitude was second-to-none.

“We’ve had a few days off but we’ve trained really well since.

“We’ve worked on a few things from the Tonga game that we’d like to improve and hopefully, they will be right for the weekend.”