It was not me who said it but rather a respected journalist of much rugby experience and a hard edge but with, admittedly, a softish centre. “The Lions,” he claimed recently, “is the last great rugby adventure.”
It is a travelling caravan, bigger nowadays but with not so many hurdles to overcome; it is an expedition with a known destination but with many staging posts in between; born of a long tradition, romantic and once exotic with many a colourful character and the occasional villain too.
I am delighted that the 2009 Lions tour to South Africa can be thought of as an adventure. It is, as the tour’s manager, the way I think of it. As with all adventures, there remains the sense of embarking on the unknown. We will have to create a team spirit from the accumulation of players from four characteristically different nations who a couple of months previously would have competed vigorously against each other in a Six Nations Championship, but the journey begins with this year’s tournament. Players from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales must start to show this season that they can give generously of themselves at decisive and tough moments and that they can in time be part of a band of brothers moulded in the hope of accomplishing the dream.
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It is not just the players who must prove themselves. In a couple of months, we will choose the head coach for the Lions tour and then decisions will be made as to the rest of the backroom team. This preparation period is an exciting time even if, at the moment, there is much in the balance.
It is time to reflect on previous tours, to learn from others and to listen. Unlike a national team, with a season’s play following swiftly upon another and the almost seamless change with which it occurs — and the gradual shifting of who’s in and who’s out — the Lions start from scratch every time the call is made once every four years. Each tour creates its own character; the next one is for ever.
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At the moment each of the four nations is experiencing change. Players have departed the scene in England and new ones are in the making. Ireland, too, are smarting after the disappointment of the World Cup and hope for a new injection of talent to return on track. But who knows?
Wales are forging a new regime off the field and abound in uncertainty. Scotland seem to be generating a fuller confidence, which if they had had it in their possession in the autumn could well have seen them travel farther in the World Cup.
Wherever we look there is a fresh start of sorts for each country. Whither will this all take us? To help to form the Lions of 2009, one hopes.