Gatland had initially raised the idea of adding a clutch of players to his Lions squad ahead of the Chiefs encounter back in September.
All four new arrivals played in Wales's victory over Tonga in Auckland on Friday, while Scotland are in Australia and Ireland are touring Japan.
Wales interim head coach Robin McBryde said he was willing to ease the burden and help out the man he is filling in for.
Skippered by Irish rake Rory Best, the Lions are completely changed from the side which suffocated the Maori All Blacks 32-10 in Rotorua on Saturday.
The Lions - who have won two and lost two so far - will be aiming for a morale-boosting win in Rotorua.
Gatland's selections reveal at least part of his plans for Saturday's first Test against New Zealand at Auckland's Eden Park.
The hosts ran in 12 tries in a dominant display of attacking rugby, with fly-half Beauden Barrett scoring 24 points.
The performance and the win over the Maori was not, said Gatland, about sending a message to the All Blacks in the wake of their scintillating 78-0 win over Samoa. "I'm sure there will be different combinations". But that's professional sport, got to deal with that and move on.
"But it is important you take it with a pinch of salt at times because you know if you work as hard as you always do when things are going well, it will eventually turn and as a 10 you rely on so much around you".
The Maori would surely be reminded of the victorious 2005 side that scored the first win for the Maori in eight attempts against the Lions going back 75 years.
UK's May meets fire survivors, faces criticism
Critics have said that it is because of the empty properties that people will be forced outside of the local area. The Sun newspaper said 65 people are now feared dead or missing in the fire.
"It is disappointing to see injury cut his tour short but we wish him all the best with his recovery".
Rotorua Police are praising the good humour and high levels of community engagement shown by people across the city ahead of and during tonight's match between the Māori All Blacks and the British and Irish Lions.
"Either way, we will learn a lot about what they will be bringing next week", he said.
"It's a big game for the Lions again".
"He's a world-class player and right up there". I just want to get on the pitch and play now. Probably at 12. He (Gatland) has said he's got something else up his sleeve other than his arm and that might be one of them.
"We talked about the conditions, that we needed to try and play the territory and play them as well as we could".
MAORI ALL BLACKS: J Lowe; N Milner-Skudder, M Proctor (R Thompson, 53), C Ngatai, R Ioane; D McKenzie (I West, 70), T Kerr-Barlow (B Hall, 74); K Hames (H Elliot, 70), A Dixon - captain (C Eves, 61), B May (M Renata, 74); J Wheeler (L Price, 70), T Franklin; A Ioane, E Dixon (K Pryor, 70), L Messam.
Replacements: H Elliot, C Eves, M Renata, L Price, K Pryor, B Hall, I West, R Thompson.
But the tourists grew into the game and ground away in the forward pack, triumphing by virtue of a second-half penalty try and Maro Itoje burrowing over from the bottom of a close-range ruck.
Comments