The game has changed since I led the Lions out in Whangerai, 1993, the same venue where Sam Warburton will have that great honour on Saturday. But the mascot is still a fluffy Lion, the shirt is still blood red and the badge unites Great Britain and Ireland. As long as the Lions live, these facts will never change.
For all the gulf in time between 1993 and 2017 much of the Lions experience will have transformed less than perhaps the present crop of players preparing for this experience think. These Lions stages link how it was for me to how it might be for the latest Lions.
1 The childish excitement
The moment when the realisation you are touring hits home. In 1993 I found out from Ceefax. This time around the delirium of men like Iain Henderson and Jarod Payne was captured on social media as they watched the news break live on Sky Sports News. When you meet to pick up the kit, players act like kids in Santa’s Grotto. “Stash”, we called the kit. It was interesting that when Ben Youngs withdrew, Warren Gatland was quick to name Greig Laidlaw, emphasising how much he wanted the scrum half to share the kit tradition. To a first-time Lion there are few feelings comparable to knowing that that training shirt with the Lions logo is yours, that great big kit bag that will be lumped around the Land of the Long White Cloud with all your gear inside. You, a Lion.
2 The arrival
Touchdown in Auckland and the first of many welcomes. New Zealand is a land of infinite variety when it comes to stepping off a plane or bus. The most significant one is the cultural coming together of European and Maori culture at Waitangi where the British Crown and Maori Chiefs signed a treaty in 1840. When we toured, the party were given the Maori welcome before the first game. On this tour the Lions travel to Waitangi the day after the opening game. We arrived earlier than these Lions but subconsciously the timing suggests the tour starts for real on Wednesday; that this Saturday’s match against the Provincial Barbarians is a glorified warm-up for the visitors.
Key stat
2-1
The Lions defeat to New Zealand in 1993
3 The preparation
“There is not loads and loads to learn,” said Owen Farrell earlier this week. The Lions are about getting the basics and the essentials right in the short timespan allowed. In 1993 the backs worked almost obsessively on our rucking skills, something we did as a rare afterthought back home. Ian McGeechan had rightly recognised the quality of the All Blacks’ breakdown work. Alas, all the practice in the world didn’t stop my mate, Robert Jones of the short legs, from opening up my skull a few days ahead of the first Test and ending whatever hope I had of being selected.
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4 First-day nerves
I had plenty of these as captain for the first match, other players screamed and hollered to hide their excitement. I would love to be inside young Kyle Sinckler’s head in the final few seconds before the Lions run out tomorrow.
5 The highs (not guaranteed but much desired)
They range from the personal to collective. For me the personal high was being told I was captain for the first game. The second I sprinted from the Whangarei changing rooms into the sunlight was the moment I transformed into a Lion. The team performances are a calmer sort of satisfied reflection. In 1993, outside the Test win, the highlight was our comeback from a 20-odd point deficit to beat the Maori, way above Wellington in the relentless wind of Athletic Park. Oh, and one of my best performances (not that many, I grant you) in an international jersey, against Taranaki, replete with my turban-like bandaging. It was one of those days when you seemed to float through the game, with Scott Gibbs a glorious comfort for a fly half at inside centre.
“Those not in the Test squad should give all for the common cause. The professionalism of the game has changed this
6 The lows (not guaranteed but be prepared)
The terrible moment is never far away. New Zealand tours are turbulent worlds of emotional extremes. Think Barry John. Think Brian O’Driscoll. Mine was on an altogether lesser scale but missing out on a chance to be selected, coming onto the field as a late replacement in the midweek match ahead of the first Test was the low point of my international career. On another disappointing note, we were outplayed by Otago a week ahead of the first Test. Otago played a fast game that seems now like a precursor to the 21st century All Blacks. As fly half I should have slowed the game down, imposed our supposed set-piece superiority upon them. But it all seemed too much fun at the time. The Lions fly halves will have to judge the tempo of a game better than I did. The role of the ten remains essentially the same.
7 The nightmare (rare but something to avoid)
These cannot be mentioned to any other player. Mine was the first Test. I watched the game in my fetching bandage from the stands with my fingers crossed for 80 long minutes. We led to the last second before a desperate decision gave Grant Fox a chance to steal the game from our deserving paws. So close. But we were 1-0 down and unlikely to make many changes for the second Test. A loser on both counts.
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8 The reaction (there are always plenty of these, one way or the other)
In our tour we reacted badly on two counts. The midweek team became disconnected from the Test team and let the Lions down in a couple of games against Hawkes Bay and Waikato, also on the training field. Those not in the Test squad should give all for the common cause. The professionalism of the game has changed this. The other poor reaction was, paradoxically, to the superlative second Test victory. We trained as if the All Blacks had nothing more than their last 80 minutes to give. They had a new set of tactics and tore us to pieces in the deciding Test. Keep the mind open at all times.
9 The dream comes true
It didn’t for us 1993 Lions but when Jerry Guscott dropped a goal to seal the series against the Springboks four years later it felt pretty damned good, even in my attendant role as Sky Sports commentator. Much has changed since I toured, yet in so many ways, nothing has. The Lions are timeless.
• You can read The Times’ Lions coverage in tomorrow’s special edition of The Scrum
