THE POWER OF FOUR

An Englishman, Irishman, Welshman and Scotsman go on a tour... How the unique institution that is the Lions creates the most unlikely of bonds

- Neil Squires

IAN McGEECHAN - the Lion King himself - ticks off the components it takes to make a successful British & Irish Lions tour. The head coach needs to select the right people as well as the best players for the trip. Disrupters need not apply. The squad size has to be calibrated correctly so every player can be given sufficient playing minutes to state his case for a Test place.

And as the tour takes shape, the squad must, despite its multinational constituency, evolve into a band of brothers.

In one sense a Lions tour is a four-yearly social experiment, throwing together rivals, stirring with a giant spoon and seeing what comes out at the end of the process. It is amazing, though, how often it works.

When it does, the benefit is twofold. For the Lions it provides a cohesive fighting force; for the players themselves, cross-border bonds that last a lifetime.

“The first two or three weeks, you try to put players with players from a different country and forwards with backs as well so you get a real mix,” explains McGeechan.

“Share a cup of tea in the → → morning in their room, find out a little about their different backgrounds and how they've come to a Lions environment and they are able to get to know each other. “That chemistry from getting to know each other, and what you can bring out of each other in a rugby context, is so important in a Lions environment.

“You know it’s working when they come into a room and they sit down in the nearest place. They don't look to see who is on which table - ‘oh crikey, there's five Scotsmen over there and four Welshmen over there’. That's when you know you've got it right.

“The national thing falls by the wayside when you have got the real strong, positive environment that is so important to enable the Lions to put in performances of Test-match level.”