Lions

The buildup to the 2009 British and Irish Lions tour continues here on Rugby Rugby with our columnist Jon Harris taking a brief look at the history and prestige that is all part of the Lions experience.

The first accredited British Lions tour to South Africa took place in 1924, although the first British Isles team toured in 1891. Sponsored by the RFU, the Western Province Union and Cecil John Rhodes, Premier of the Cape Colony at the time, the team was initially called the England Rugby Football Team. It was however changed to the British Isles as it did contain a few Scotsman, one of which Bill Mclagen, was the captain.
 
They were unbeaten on tour, South Africa was an emerging rugby nation, and what was interesting is that they presented a trophy to the Griqualand West, the team who offered them the most resistance. This trophy was called the Currie Cup, and till today is still the premier domestic competition in South Africa.
 
Lions are ostensibly a touring team, undertaking tours to South Africa, New ealand and Australia on a rotationary basis every four years. There have been special occasions when the British & Irish Lions have played on home soil, but these are very rare.
 
The 1888 the British Isles team to Australia and New Zealand played 53 matches including 18 against Australian opposition, which were played as Aussie Rules matches because of the popularity of that code there. Interestingly they won all of these.
 
The British Isles teams picked up the nickname of Lions on their 1924 tour to South Africa, given to them by the press. To this day the moniker has stuck and is perhaps better known than it's official title.
 
The 1971 Lions tour was the last to tour New Zealand and Australia together and was also the first to win there in 75 years.
 
Perhaps the most famous British & Irish Lions team was Willie John Mc Bride's 1974 party. They were a talented group, possibly freakish in its abundance of talent. The Wales team was at its peak, the Irish were strong, the English had a healthy crop, and Scotland were not to be outdone and supplied the likes of Mighty Mouse McLaughlin.
 
Ian Mc Geechan, the current coach, toured as a player in that squad. Mc Bride succeeded in gelling the team and overcome national divides, which played an important role in focussing the team on winning a home test series against the formidable Springboks. The Boks had not lost a series on home soil that century! Till then.
 
If McBride's team is arguably the best test team ever, irrespective of nationality, then perhaps Sir Clive Woodward's bloated squad to New Zealand has the unenviable label of being the worst. Woodward, fresh from taking England to the World Cup Championship, was given everything his heart desired on a tour which was expected to be the most successful ever. New Zealand was indisputably the number one team at the time, and Woodward was convinced that he had the plan and team to topple them.
 
He took a huge squad of over 51 players and 44 back up staff. He spent months planning every aspect of the tour. But it appeared he allowed sentiment to rule his judgement and his First Test selection was confounding and unanimously seen as weak. The Lions were thrashed 21-3 in that test and although he changed the team after that, the damage appeared to have been done and he lost the Second Test as well. It was no surprise when he lost the Third Test and conceded a whitewash, colloquially known as a "blackwash".
 
Ian MacGeechan was assistant coach of that squad. He had been head coach on three previous tours and as mentioned was a member of the 1974 Lions greats. He is seen as the man who has done the most for the Lions brand.

Unassuming, thorough, charismatic and intelligent, he plots and strategises with ingenuity and attention to detail. He is the antithesis of Woodward, who proved to love the limelight when it shone. Let's not forget his much publicised switch to football and his extremely quiet exit a few months later.
 
McGeechan loves the Lions brand, he places value on it. He buys into the concept and sees it as what it is, an opportunity for the four Home Unions to combine and face the World's best as one, forsaking national pride for a new, combined pride. Indeed he realises the challenges of overcoming this and has encouraged his charges for this tour to get to know each other.

He has instructed them to go out for a beer or a meal together. They will also share rooms in another attempt to cross the national divides present in British Isles rugby. He is bringing back the Lions pride, something he knows inside out, and he wants it at the forefront of this tour. While not admitting it, the last Lions tour is perhaps a blemish he'd like to wipe away. For the moment it is the last memory of the Lions, until this tour is completed. If this tour is successful, that blemish fades like an old scar.
 
While not beating up on Woodward, his was only the third Lions tour in the professional era and the razzmatazz was there for the taking, but he did perhaps get carried away. How much different would his tour have been now in the current economic climate? He was given money to burn and was allowed to take a large number of players, supposedly because of the distance and time it would take to get a replacement out to New Zealand. He had to use 51 players in 11 matches. How did he hope to overcome barriers and work out combinations on such a schedule?
 
This is what makes McGeechan that wee bit more dangerous on this tour. He would have learnt from the last one and he has the experience of his own tours in charge. He knows the South Africans. He has a strong management team and an equally strong coaching team. He does however only have six matches before the first test in which to fine tune his selections and combinations. Six bruising, tough encounters.

by Jon Harris