An old Peter Cooke & Dudley Moore line to start this one off!

Right. I had an idea. I reckon this could work.

How about, when Geech or Gerald Davies hands out the Lions shirts for the first test match, they name a few names that have filled the jersey before the player who is receiving it?

Imagine being in the room......

"JPR Williams; Andy Irvine; Gavin Hastings... Rob Kearney"

"JJ Davies; Tony O'Reilly; Jason Robinson... Leigh Halfpenny"

"Scott Hastings; Brendan Mullin;Scott Gibbs... Brian O'Driscoll"

"David Duckham; Mike Gibson; Jeremy Guscott... Jamie Roberts"

"Tom Grace; Clive Woodward; Rory Underwood... Shane Williams"

"Barry John; Phil Bennett; Jonny Wilkinson... Stephen Jones"

"Dicky Jeeps; Gareth Edwards; Matt Dawson... Mike Blair"

"Mervyn Davies; Andy Ripley; Willie Duggan... Jamie Heaslip"

"Tony Neary; John Taylor; Peter Winterbottom... Martin Williams"

"Fergus Slattery; Mike Teague; Richard Hill... Tom Croft"

"Willie John McBride; Maurice Colclough; Moss Keane... Paul O'Connell"

"Bill Beaumont; Bob Norster; Martin Johnson... Simon Shaw"

"Graham Price; Mike Burton; Paul Wallace... Andrew Sheridan

"Bobby Windsor, Peter Wheeler; Keith Wood... Lee Mears

"Charlie Faulkner; Fran Cotton; Jason Leonard... Gethin Jenkins


This tactic would work for me man! I run around knocking seven bells out of anything in a green shirt until my lungs gave in..... then I'd have a breather and start again. It would be compete green & yellow carnage....

PERFECT!!

ps: You WOULD NOT believe how many great, great players I had to leave out of this list. It's just a phenominal legacy of rugby class and should be put to good use. In fact, I'm pretty sure that whomever was doing the reading could make a comprehensive list of different players for each position for all three tests!!

You're falling into that same old trap... The Lions are not about individual ability, they never have been -not since the first tour in 1898. It's about teamwork, spirit, brotherhood and conquering adversity...

The Lions are all about filling the shirt and raising your game to levels higher than you have ever been asked to before. An opportunity to write your name in history alongside the legends -not to replace them. The legacy must live on. Their names will always live on...

Just imagine how many players don't get the chance to make a Lions squad, let alone a test team? Players that hit poor form, careers cruelly cut short by injury.... think how many great, great club players couldn't raise their game to International Standard let alone Lions standard... and then multiply that by four....

The word 'special' is used hundreds & hundreds of times in the film of the 1997 Lions Tour. Making the squad made you a "special" player... making the Test Team made you a "very special" player...

Sat there hearing those legendary names being called out position by position; names that are tattooed into every true rugby supporters sub-conscious; and then hearing your own would make you realise what you have achieved in your career and at the same time how far you still have to go.... it would make you want to raise your game again.... exactly what is required on this adventure of adventures...

That's almost as tough an ask as the Lions winning this series to be honest. A fusion between the amateur days of rugby and the (alleged) switch to professionalism in 1995 (no comments about boot money please! ).

The game is played at a faster pace these days -or was until the ELV's introduced aerial ping-pong to our beloved game and the athletes are bigger and stronger because they live in the Gym these days. Still, I guess natural ability, skill and flair transcend different ways of playing the game.

I will have a think and hopefully post a selection before Thursdays flight.... but if I don't manage it, I am taking my Crackberry along so it might make the 3hr coach journey to Sun City pass a bit quicker!!