There was only five points in it at the end and Gavin Rich, writing on Supersport.com, feels that both sets of coaches will be kicking themselves this morning.

"Both the coaching groups of the two teams involved in Saturday’s first test between the Springboks and the British and Irish Lions can look back at the game and feel they may have made a mess of it.

Fortunately for the Springboks, the players were good enough to win it with a controlled opening 55 minutes that set them on the road to a 26-21 victory and first blood in the three match series. This was in spite of what can only be described as a near suicidal spate of second half substitutions that beggared belief and completely robbed the Boks of their earlier momentum.

After being down 26-7, the Lions ended with such dominance that they were able to talk confidently afterwards of squaring the series in Pretoria next week. Confidence was not something they would have envisaged having when their scrum was being destroyed by Beast and company and they were being mauled back 30 metres at a time by the Springboks."

Former Lion Lawrence Dallaglio, writing in the Times, believes that despite going down in the first test match to the Springboks the Lions showed enough in the second half in Durban to take the Boks on in Pretoria.

"IT WAS a Test match that the Lions lost in the first 10 minutes. Even now, an hour after the end of the game, I feel a little sick and shellshocked about John Smit being able to waltz over for that first try. What was it, six or seven minutes, and they haven’t done much but they have seven points on the board. I couldn’t believe that the Lions would start as tamely as they did.

We had promised ourselves we would be brutally physical, that we would not lose that battle. We knew the South Africans were short of match practice, that they wouldn’t have the sharpness that comes from playing serious matches, and that we had to strike early. The opposite happened.

We didn’t stop them on the gainline, we allowed them to ease their way back into Test rugby. We allowed them to boss us at the lineout, at the scrum and at the breakdown. We were brutalised in the first 50 minutes and they demonstrated a lot of power and precision. Their second try, scored by Heinrich Brussow, followed an awesome show of mauling power from their big pack."

Former Lions fly-half Jonny Wilkinson gives an insight in to the psyche of the tourists ahead of the first Test in The Times.

"Make no mistake, I would love to be out in South Africa in that Lions squad. But then again, who wouldn’t want to be in that squad?

"But this is what I am thinking when I am imagining being around this Lions squad. I am not thinking: “Poor me, I wish I was there.” I am asking myself: “How close, how tight are they as a squad?” And: “Will the Test team be looking around at each other in the dressing room before tomorrow’s game thinking, ‘I respect you and I will put my body on the line for you’?”

"Because the success of the Lions, for me, rises or falls on the trust and the bond that are built. And I know that’s a Lions cliché, so I will rewind to this time four years ago, to the first Test against the All Blacks in Christchurch, and use that horrible, wet night to explain.

"Building up to that Test, there were a lot of nerves. The quality of the sides that we had played in the build-up games made clear the quality of the opposition that we would be facing. And let’s not take anything away from those All Blacks, they won 21-3 and they were superb, but the foundations of the Lions’ defensive game fell away that night and it was trust — or lack of it — that was the cause."

Writing for The Independent, Peter Bills is hoping that some of this year's Lions kick on and make a name for themselves on the world stage.

"The class of 2009 is thinly stretched in terms of resources when it comes to genuine world class talent. The acid test, painful yet always appropriate, is how many would be sure to get into a current World XV ? The brutal answer is one, Brian O'Driscoll.

"Yet having accepted the limitations of these Lions and especially those outside the top 15 – the uneven, unconvincing results against many of the below strength provincial sides in the build-up to this 1st Test has merely underlined that truth – there is now a golden opportunity for some of the chosen 15 to kick on and make their names as genuine world class talents.

"If this is a team hardly oozing world class, it is undeniably one with a strong bond, a common cause that coach Ian McGeechan and his assistants have worked hard on creating. Now comes the chance for the individuals to make their name.

"In 1997, you couldn't pretend the Lions began the Test series with a side stuffed full of legends. Martin Johnson was one, Jeremy Guscott another but not that many others came to mind. But on that tour, myriad players – the likes of Lawrence Dallaglio, Richard Hill, Neil Back and Matt Dawson - seized the opportunity to lift their games to another plateau. That triumph took those players all the way on to a World Cup win with England in 2003."

Stephen Jones delivers his latest volley from South Africa and focuses on the storied history of violent games in Port Elizabeth in his Rolling Maul blog for The Times.

"The Campaign for Real Stadium Names is invalidated today as whatever they now call the Boet Erasmus Stadium here in Port Elizabeth, the Lions are not playing there anyway. We are at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, a different place altogether.

"In fact, our youthful taxi driver last night had never even heard of the Boet Erasmus, even though it is one of the great names of South African rugby history. Mind you, that wasn't his worst offence. That was to demand a preposterously high fare from Eddie Butler, whose reaction made us all glad that we were never taxi drivers in Pontypool. In no time at all the driver was desperately trying to pay us for the honour.

"Mind you, the old place didn't half house a few punch-ups in its time. No touring team of any nationality came to the Boet Erasmus without helping to touch off World War 3 and 4 in the same match. It was also at Boet Erasmus that I finally decided on the identity of the hardest man who ever played rugby. I had always narrowed the choice down to around 400 but in 1994 on an England tour, when Eastern Province and the Lions staged the Battle of Boet Erasmus, I realised that Graham Dawe of Bath and England was the runaway winner of the title."

The Sunday Times' David Walsh pays a visit to the Du Plessis family home in the Eastern Free State.

"Bismarck du Plessis had called back with his mother’s offer of lunch and now we are in the dining room of the Du Plessis family home near Bethlehem in Eastern Free State. Eleven in all, seated at a long, rectangular table; Francois and Jo-Helene, two of their sons, Jannie and Bismarck, their daughter Inez, five family friends and a journalist. There is ham, beef, lamb, chicken, potatoes, vegetables, sauces and so much effort that lunch has become the grandest occasion.

We share stories of backgrounds. They have been farmers in this area for generations, counting their blessings when the rains came, surviving when they didn’t. Afrikaner people who worked the land for food, hunted, fished and played rugby. They didn’t have much but they had enough."

Stephen Jones assesses the Lions' chances against the Springboks in The Sunday Times.

"What strengths have the Lions to bank on? First, the excellence of their coaching team, and its unity. McGeechan’s mixture of merry and terse men are clearly working an abrupt magic on this squad, despite the abysmally short time frame. As I have said before, if there is a Test victory out there, then the coaching team will find it, they are more wily and experienced than the home coaching squad.

The Lions also have a very fine scrum, whether or not it is Andrew Sheridan or Gethin Jenkins who plays at loose-head. If we can edge forward those few inches at scrum time and if the referee is not one of those preposterous fools who believes he must even up the scrum rather than allow advantage to the stronger unit, then the Lions could take away some of the legs of the Springboks."

Martyn Williams, Joe Worsley, Nathan Hines and James Hook provided Ian McGeechan with just the selection quandary the Lions head coach has been craving according to Ian Stafford in the Mail on Sunday.

"With the first Test against South Africa in Durban now six days away, McGeechan had much of his starting XV confirmed by the hard-fought victory in difficult wet and windy conditions. But he also now has the happy problem, when he sits down to pick the Test team with his fellow coaches after the final warm-up game on Tuesday, of some fierce competition for places.

More candidates have emerged in the forwards, while there is a genuine two-way battle to back up stand-off Stephen Jones, who did enough to warrant his berth on his way to scoring two penalties and a conversion."

Eddie Butler believes Lions winger Ugo Monye is in line for a place in the tourists' Test side - read his thoughts in The Observer.

"The Lions are not aiming to be sophisticated; they merely demand precision in the simple things they do. That they ended up in a bit of a pickle in Cape Town goes against the strategy. That it was a close game reflects other matches in Rustenburg and Bloemfontein. Simplicity is the message, confused is sometimes the reality.

It doesn't really matter. The unbeaten record keeps morale high. The strategy is more a template for the training field, a goal to be reached not here or in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday, but in the first Test. The confusion merely underlines how tight the deadlines are. Will they be ready in time? For a message based on absolute clarity, the race to deliver it means we shall not know until Durban if it has been unscrambled by the Lions."

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Paul Ackford believes that the referees will still have a big part to play as the Lions prepare their Test side.

”Another Saturday, another struggle for the Lions. But, hallelujah, this was a great game of rugby played in front of a healthy crowd. Even the weather contributed to a sense of occasion as the rain, driven by blasting winds, lashed down. Shut your eyes for a moment and you could have been at Croke Park so appalling were the conditions.

“It would be curmudgeonly to suggest this was a match the Lions could have lost because they played some decent rugby especially into the wind in the first half. But they will be concerned at their disciplinary record which allowed Western Province to stay in touch. The Lions outscored Western Province by three tries to one, and Tommy Bowe was magnificent throughout, but it took a long range penalty goal from James Hook with three minutes remaining to make the game safe.

“In the end the decisive area was the scrummage, an area which is certain to be an issue in the Test series which starts in Durban on Saturday. The problem these days is that no-one - players, coaches or spectators - has the faintest idea as to what referees require. In the first half Lions captain Phil Vickery seemed to be in a spot of bother as Western Province attacked his side of the scrum. But when Euan Murray took over in the last quarter, and Wicus Blaauw the belligerent Western Province prop was replaced, the Lions scrum powered up. Referee Mark Lawrence gave three scrum penalties to the Lions in the final 10 minutes and one of them led to the kick with which Hook won the game. Who says referees don’t influence games?”

The Lions may be winning but what has been noticeable thus far has been the lack of interest from local South African fans in their visit. Dan Retief, writing on Supersport.com. , believes that greed has caused the tour of '09 to be a let down and that the Lions face extinction.

"It’s quite hard to admit, but the Lions tour has been a dreadful letdown… and the worst is, I should have seen it coming. When the Lions landed I waxed almost lyrical about the excitement generated by a tour.

I had been researching their history; I had been closely involved with the ’74, ’80 and ’97 sides and I couldn’t wait for the matches to start.

However I took my eye off the ball.

I should have known that fans would not be enthused over supporting provincial teams and pick-up squads that contained none of the star players that normally attract them to part with their money, but most of all I should have heeded the warnings dropping into my own inbox."

Writing in The Independent, Peter Bills is worried by the Lions' lack of finishing prowess as they build towards the Test matches.

"Look past what appears to be a one-sided scoreline. The age old failing of northern hemisphere rugby was writ large all over the Lions game in Durban tonight.

"An inability to finish off scoring chances has been the bête noire of the game in this hemisphere for years and the failing was laid bare against the Sharks at the ABSA stadium.

"Never mind their ultimate win. For the Lions to have reached half time holding only a slender 7-3 lead over the Sharks 2nd XV was the ultimate indictment of northern hemisphere rugby players’ lack of accuracy, precision and patience in the vital last few yards before the opposition try line.

"Watch an All Black team if you wish to see the complete opposite. They are clinical, ruthless and deadly in their finishing. If they get into the opposition 22, chances are they will come away with a score. In Durban last night, the Lions had 80% of possession in the first half, a hatful of scoring opportunities and countless chances to put points on the board. Lee Mears’ 23rd minute try excepted, they failed every other time."

Nick Cain meets South Africa's Pierre Spies, the self proclaimed best No.8 in the world, in The Times.

"The self-confidence of some of 2009 Lions squad may be feeling a little fragile after Saturday's 26-24 escape against the Free State Cheetahs, but as the tour goes on it will also be dawning on them that South African rugby players do not do self-doubt.

"Their self-belief is best highlighted by Pierre Spies, the player dubbed the Springbok Superman, who said this, after being asked in a recent SA Rugby magazine interview who he considers to be the best No 8 in the world: "That player is still in the making. It's me."

"Quizzed further on whether the 23-year-old Spies really believes that to be the case - he is the same age as the Lions backrowers Stephen Ferris and Tom Croft - he responded that he is not going to apologise for having confidence in his own ability despite the world-class credentials of Italian No 8 Sergio Parisse."

Paul Ackford offers his thoughts on the Lions' latest encounter in the Sunday Telegraph.

"Paul O’Connell, the Lions captain, doesn’t appear able to galvanise his charges. O’Connell had a fine match in the lineout and he worked tirelessly all game but in terms of leadership he was off the pace. O’Connell’s Lions were 20 points to the good after the first quarter but at the end of this match they were reduced to fighting for survival, so swiftly had the energy and passion left them. That doesn’t speak well off the captain’s ability to change the flow of the game.

Yet the Lions remain unbeaten, they did blood another nine players in head coach Ian McGeechan’s endless quest to bond one team, and they did scrummage superbly. Those aspects, and some fine individual performances, notably from Stephen Ferris, Andrew Sheridan and Joe Worsley, before he tired, were positives which the Lions can take away from Saturday’s work."

South African internationals are avoiding contact with the Lions in the hope of springing a surprise in the first Test, writes Stuart Barnes in the Sunday Times.

"South Africa have adopted a sporting scorched earth policy by withdrawing their 28-man Test squad from contact with the Lions. Instead of Jaque Fourie and Juan Smith getting an early sight of the tourists with the Golden Lions and the Cheetahs, the visitors have been left to face lesser names. Encountering a frontline South African international before the first Test is about as likely as encountering an elephant in downtown Johannesburg.

Peter de Villiers might be thinking back to the 2007 World Cup where the All Blacks, starved of a competitive pool match, crumpled when the pressure came on in the quarter-finals. Four years ago New Zealand did the same thing to the Lions, who duly headed with delusions of English grandeur to the first Test and three weekends of humiliation.

The flip side of the coin is that many of the home team will not have played for five weeks or more (excluding the routine warm-up game against Namibia). Such potential rustiness could suit the Lions to perfection. By trying to be too clever, the Springboks may be acting stupidly."

The below-par tourists avoided defeat by an inch after a mighty scare, writes Chris Hewett in the Independent on Sunday.

"Forget the Wednesday night waltz in Johannesburg. South African rugby showed its hard face at the Free State Stadium yesterday, the locals testing the Lions to the limit in a compelling game ultimately decided by the strength of the tourists' set-piece and the two or three centimetres that denied Louis Strydom a match-winning drop goal a minute into stoppage time. Strydom struck boldly from near the halfway line, but saw his kick slide to the right of the posts. It could barely have been closer.

But for the Lions' scrum – and, to a slightly lesser extent, their line-out – the Free Staters would have won. They made life horribly difficult for the tourists at the breakdown, robbing them of possession like some band of rugby-playing highwaymen."

A tense match against the Free State Cheetahs was the preparation the Lions needed for tougher tests ahead writes Brian O'Driscoll in the Observer.

You learn a lot when you are pushed to the limit, far more than in an easy win. We were defensively strong against the Cheetahs and our set-pieces worked well, but we suffered from turnovers again and we have work to do at the breakdown, which is such a key area of the game.

We thrive on quick ball and the Cheetahs managed to slow a lot of our possession down. A unique feature of this tour is that some of the warm-up games are being controlled by referees from Britain and Ireland, starting with England's Wayne Barnes yesterday.

Some may have thought that would work in our favour, but we struggled with his interpretations at the breakdown more than we had in the games controlled by South African officials. It made it tougher for us and, again, that gave us something positive to take from the game."

If the Cheetahs had shown a little more patience in the final minutes, they could have claimed the scalp of the Lions, writes Peter Bills in the Cape Argus

"In possession, driving off the forwards and two points behind, it became clear a late drop goal could snatch the game. All it needed was patience by the forwards to keep driving forward, take the ball up to the Lions 22 and then release it.

Instead, they panicked. Replacement Louis Strydom was given the ball too far out and his attempt, from close to halfway, sailed wide. It was a golden opportunity lost by the Cheetahs, but it told us more about the Lions than the locals.

So ordinary a display by the tourists just three days after the sumptuous performance in Johannesburg reminded us the quality and class does not go very deep in this Lions squad."

Paul Ackford vents his spleen at the lack of atmosphere on the current Lions tour of South Africa in The Daily Telegraph.

"And that is not the only thing that is devaluing this Lions tour as a memorable experience. You could just about live without seeing this country's finest players if the atmosphere surrounding the games was worthwhile.

"But the matches to date have been played out in front of stadiums which were less than half empty. On average, they have been a third full.

"There is next to no buzz at the games, hardly a decent traffic jam to worry about. Even the biltong sellers look bored. Leicester on a wet Saturday afternoon in December had more atmosphere than Bloemfontein on Saturday.

"This would not be an issue if this Lions tour had not been held up as one of the rallying points of world rugby. Everyone loves the Lions, we are told. They are the biggest draw card around, bigger than the All Blacks, as big as World Cups."

Ian McGeechan is willing to go into first Test without fielding first-choice side in bid to keep South Africa guessing according to Paul Rees in the Guardian.

"The Lions have three matches left before the first Test against South Africa in Durban and they are considering going into the Test series without once playing their first-choice side, both to keep the Springboks' analysts up nights and to keep the flame of hope burning for very nearly all their players until next week.

The Lions may not have arrived in South Africa with the legions Sir Clive Woodward took to New Zealand in 2005, but it is still a military operation. Ian McGeechan and his management team have been planning their strategy over the last 12 months and they believe any disadvantage they may suffer by not giving the Test team a run before the opening game against South Africa will be offset by the uncertainty it will create among the Springboks."

Writing in The Times, Stuart Barnes warns the Lions not to underestimate the challenge posed by the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.

"So much for the likely new Lions. What about the smaller game cat, the Cheetah? Bottom in the Super 14 but they played some good rugby in the latter stages, notably a fine home win against the Crusaders and a determined effort in a 29-20 defeat by the Blue Bulls that was probably better than they played any time this season.

"This is proud rugby territory and the Lions will need to be sharp not to let the Cheetahs undo much of Wednesday night’s excellent work. Paul O’ Connell’s leadership could do with reaching the heights of Brian O'Driscoll's, his Irish captain. He should also be forced to perform near his best such was the strength of Nathan Hines and Alun Wyn Jones’s performances.

"Preparing to face the Lions is the unluckiest rugby player in South Africa. The open side, Heinrich Brussow, has been omitted from the Springbok squad of 28 even though there is no other open side bar Schalk Burger. Brussow will be determined to make a fool of his national coach by causing the Lions back row all manner of problems. Behind the scrum watch out for the pace of Danwel Demas on the wing and the strength of Hennie Daniller from full back. It is a big day for the Free State and one can only hope the stadium fills up as the others have not thus far. The Lions did their bit to increase the tour excitement by scoring 74 points. Let us hope the partisan home crowd arrive in their thousands to give us a game with atmosphere and quality."

Writing in The Independent, Peter Bills believes that the Lions have arrived in South Africa after their 74-10 drubbing of the Golden Lions.

"This was the start of the real Lions tour, after the stuttering opening of last weekend in Rustenburg. And several players put their hands up for possible Test selection.

"Chief among them were Brian O’Driscoll, Tommy Bowe, Jamie Roberts, Tom Croft, Nathan Hines, Gethin Jenkins, Alun Wyn Jones, Mike Phillips and Stephen Jones. That’s nine players which is almost two thirds of a team. It won’t persuade hard task masters like the Lions coaches to think the job is nearly done; far, far from it.

"But the key thing was, there was a clearly discernible shape and structure about the Lions and the effect was apparent on the scoreboard.

"Ulster’s Stephen Ferris got the chance to join the party early in the second half, a special moment in the career of the Irish flanker. The astonishing 60 metre try he scored directly from his own turnover in the final minute was reward for his mighty effort in the last half hour."

Stephen Jones, in his Rolling Maul blog for The Times, is concerned at the lack of criticism being levelled at the Springboks squad.

"Last night, the wraps came off the Springbok squad for the Test series and this morning, there was a deathly silence. Very, very worrying for the Lions. Every time I have toured here, the announcement of any South African squad has been greeted by a barrage of criticism, horror, inter-provincial jousting and multi-media savaging.

"I have combed the morning papers and websites and caught some of the sporting radio programmes. Apart from the odd outbreak of muted whingeing and the priceless observation from Peter de Villiers that Earl Rose, a young and unproven fly half, is the equivalent of Tiger Woods, there has been nothing. This country is united. It likes the Boks squad.

"It suggests that the squad is settled and dangerous. It is hard to attack in terms of finding weaknesses for the Lions to exploit. Fly half? Morne Steyn, the likely No 10, is not a contender for the pantheon but is perfectly serviceable and Ruan Pienaar, the other contender, was superb at Twickenham last season. Not much change there."

The Lions should be mindful of the strength in depth boasted by South African rugby, writes Robert Kitson in The Guardian.

"Very shortly, though, things are about to get deadly serious. The naming of the Springbok squad for the Test series has concentrated minds in both camps and further underlined the depth at South Africa's disposal. Here is an illuminating quiz question for you: how many South African-born players were plying their trade at a decent level in European club rugby last year? The answer is positively frightening: according to the excellent SA Rugby Annual, there were no fewer than 228 of them living in voluntary exile, including 37 full Springbok internationals.

"When you add that little lot to the battalions of homegrown provincial Currie Cup players and schools representatives you begin to appreciate why even a scratch team like last weekend's Royal XV contains players good enough to give a decent Lions side the runaround. As well as the 2007 World Cup, South Africa have just won the World Sevens title and their coach believes they also have a decent chance of winning the upcoming World U20 championship in Japan. The Bulls' demolition of a Waikato team containing half a dozen All Blacks was merely the icing on an increasingly substantial cake. No wonder Saracens believe that recruiting a bunch of South Africans to play in the Guinness Premiership next season is worth a punt.

"The upshot is that competition for places in the Springbok squad can rarely have been so intense. "It's amazing to see how blessed we are as a nation in terms of the amount of talent we have," observed their captain John Smit after the list of names to face the Lions had been announced live on television. When the interviewer asked for assessments of certain individuals, Smit's smart response - "I'm really happy they're on my side" – pretty much said it all."

Paul Ackford insists the Lions were listless and uninspiring in their opening tour victory over the Royal XV, read his thoughts in the Sunday Telegraph.

"If the Lions took any plusses out of this match, they came in the shape of Lee Byrne and Jamie Roberts who had fine matches. Byrne, in particular, was magnificent. His solo effort, when the Lions were behind 25-13 with 10 minutes to go, rescued his side. Roberts provided the physical presence, dragging defenders over the gain line, which the Lions were seeking, and there were some fine touches by Shane Williams who enjoyed the space the Royal XV’s kicking game offered him.

"But that was about it. The rest was very mediocre and, cruel thought it might seem, some players’ tours may already be over in the sense that they ruled themselves out of consideration for the Tests. Keith Earls fits neatly into that category. The youngest Lions in the party had a shocker, making four big mistakes inside the first 20 minutes. Earls rallied later but, with only five games to go before the first Test, that may have been his best opportunity to impress."

The Sunday Times' Stephen Jones reports from the Lions unconvincing victory over the Royal XV in Rustenburg.

"With only 13 minutes remaining of this vibrant but often alarming occasion on the parched Highveld at the Royal Bafokeng stadium, the Royal XV were leading by 25-13; they needed only a quiet few minutes to seal a famous win and to send shudders down so many British and Irish spines that it would have measured on the Richter Scale.

"As it turned out, the Lions flatly denied their valiant hosts that quiet period. They came with a desperate and yet also impressive late charge, which brought them three tries and 24 points in that last 13 minutes, and sent them on to Ellis Park, for the game against the Golden Lions on Wednesday, in better heart. And in the knowledge that they will have to improve mightily."

Lions centre Brian O'Driscoll reflects on the tourists' opening victory against the Royal XV, read his thoughts in The Observer.

"Most of the mistakes were minor, the result mainly of jitters and unfamiliarity. They will reduce in number the longer the tour goes on.

Keith Earls spilled a few passes, and I sought him out afterwards to tell him how impressed I was that he did not let his head drop. He tried to overcompensate after an early slip, but his defence was always strong and he never tried to hide from the ball. He remains a young man with a huge talent that will be seen on this tour.

"Playing in your first match for the Lions is a daunting experience. While you may know some of your team-mates – that was not the case for Mike Blair, the only Scotsman in the 22 – you are surrounded by the unknown. It is something you have to experience to truly understand, and even players who have won a number of caps find it unique."

Lions manager says his job is to help players to be content and believe in what they are doing, writes Paul Rees in the Guardian

"The Welshman is one of the most ­celebrated figures in the history of the game. A sidestepping wing with instant acceleration, he scored 20 tries, then a record, in 46 Tests for Wales between 1966 and 1978. After his retirement he worked in the media, giving up a column in a national newspaper last year after being appointed by the Lions. While many of his predecessors regarded ­journalists as an occupational hazard, Davies appreciates how they operate.

"Having twice toured with the Lions, to South Africa in 1968 and to New Zealand three years later, he understands the importance of combining work with relaxation and he has not burdened his players with a list of dos and don'ts for the next six weeks. In 2001 and 2005, Lions players complained about being worked too hard in training and having too little down time."

The 2009 Lions have some ground to make up and it begins today, amid the heat and dust of what used to be northwest Transvaal (now Bojanala), at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Phokeng, writes David Hands in The Times.

"There is unison among these Lions, players and management, that they are farther down the road to the creation of an effective team than they expected after nearly a fortnight together, but it all means nothing until they have played their first match.

"Gerald Davies and his coaches have precious little time to establish a XV good enough to overcome South Africa in the three internationals, the first of them three weeks today. For the moment, they have just one priority: to start with a win and, if possible, avoid the kind of tour-ending injury that has plagued the Lions in so many opening matches. The players themselves know that if they seek a place in the XV to play the Springboks, they can afford to waste no opportunity."

Wales wing Shane Williams offers an insight into the Lions camp ahead of their tour opener against a Royal XV in Rustenburg. Read his thoughts in the Daily Telegraph.

"I was chuffed to bits to have been selected for the first game of the tour. I was a bit worried at the start of the week because I had a sore throat and a bad chest when I arrived. There has been a lot made about the effects of the high altitude here and I have struggled to find any air, to be honest. But I am okay now and I can't wait to get out there.

On the Lions tour in 2005, I found it difficult because I wanted to play more often, so this time I just want to get out there, burn the lungs, give it everything and enjoy it. Gerald Davies, our tour manager, is going to hand out the shirts on Saturday before the game and that will mean everything to me. He was my idol when I was growing up and just to be sitting having breakfast or a coffee with Gerald is still surreal for me."

Left out of the touring party, Mike Blair was ready to book himself a holiday – but a late call-up has him dreaming of a Test cap, he tells Chris Hewett in The Independent.

"Two days before Ian McGeechan and the rest of the British and Irish Lions hierarchy were scheduled to announce their tour party for South Africa, the Edinburgh scrum-half Mike Blair was still giving himself an even-money chance of making the cut. It was a far cry from the odds-on status he had enjoyed at the start of the season, when the world and his wife considered him to be both an automatic selection and the Test No 9 in waiting, but when a Six Nations Championship goes as wrong for a team as this year's tournament did for Scotland, only the luckiest of captains emerge with reputation intact – and Blair had not been in the least bit lucky.

"I thought it was touch and go," he recalls. "Then I read that Jim Telfer had made a few comments about me. They weren't terribly positive, and as I assumed he had an inside track, I went from thinking in terms of 50-50 to thinking 'five per cent'."

Eddie Butler is pleased to see a more relaxed atmosphere developing around the Lions after the PR nightmares of 2001 and 2005, in The Guardian.

"On Lions tours, time is supposed to be so pressing that every second counts in the construction of a defence, the deconstruction of the tackle area or the rehabilitation of players involved only last weekend in European finals. And yet, here we are, with the Lions having had a day without training this week and column yards being devoted to general thumb-twiddling.

"We were even reduced to discussing ghost writing. Will Austin Healey never sue Eddie Butler? In 2001, I told so many lies trying to protect the little maestro from Graham Henry's thought police that I personally wouldn't believe a word either of us ever said again, except to say that Austin provided a glimpse of an over-managed, secretive world. And perhaps it was a little more interesting than how long Donncha spends in the shower.

"The point is that time doesn't seem quite so pressing after all. The Lions are relaxing, and good on them, before tomorrow's game, an opener that will be won at a canter against an invitation team based around the Griquas. Making comparisons about relaxation levels in 2009 and 2005 are meaningless until every tourist has a game under his belt and the medical team have assessed the damage from the first encounters. We shall have to twiddle our thumbs a while longer."

In The Daily Telegraph, Brendan Gallagher casts his eye over some of the Lions' past tour openers.

"The last British and Irish Lions team to lose their tour opener was the 1971 party coached by Carwyn James, but they went on to become the second greatest squad ever to leave these shores, so, clearly, all is not lost should the Lions suffer a similar fate in Rustenburg on Saturday, when they take on a Royal XV.

"The 1971 defeat to a fired-up Queensland, on the tour of Australia and New Zealand, was amateurish and careless in the extreme, but, in retrospect, acted as the perfect wake-up call for the talented squad.

"The tourists had stopped off in Hong Kong on the way there for a night out and arrived in tropical Brisbane only 36 hours before kick-off. A mix of jet lag and hangovers saw the out-of-sorts Lions lose 15-11.

"They were little better a few days later when scraping a win against New South Wales, but during the old-style, three-month tours a team had time to play themselves into form. The Lions' struggle to beat a modest Australian side led the Kiwis to become overconfident."

As the Lions get acclimatised in South Africa one of the key facets of the tour could already be unfolding - Springbok skipper John Smit's move to tight-head.Smit is bullish and predicting a rout as he talks to Chris Hewett in The Independent.

"There was a smidgen of good news for the British and Irish Lions as the majority of the squad continued their hard yakka on the training field while a small handful of those not required for this weekend's tour opener against an invitation side in Rustenburg – Brian O'Driscoll, Gethin Jenkins, Ugo Monye and Nathan Hines among them – headed off to an impoverished township to inaugurate a new rugby pitch at Masibambane College, a seat of learning set up at the request of the great anti-apartheid campaigner Walter Sisulu, no less.

"The glad tidings concerned John Smit, who led South Africa to the world title in 2007 while confirming himself as one of the finest hookers in Springbok history. Smit pretty much confirmed that in the forthcoming Test series, someone else will be doing the hooking while he continues in his old-new position of tight-head prop, the role he performed in age-group rugby. It is not a policy that convinces everyone in these parts – perhaps not even Smit, calmness personified as a general rule but a trifle prickly on the subject yesterday. When the 31-year-old forward from Limpopo province was asked whether it might not be a little late to start chopping and changing, he replied: "It would be if I thought my career was nearly finished." Which he doesn't, apparently.

"Smit will play at prop when a Springbok side shorn of their Bulls, who play in the Super 14 final on Saturday, take on a Namibian XV in Windhoek tomorrow by way of warming up for the important business ahead. And there was plenty about the captain – a glint in the eye, an edge to the voice – that left no one in his presence in any doubt as to the South Africans' burning determination to avenge the defeat by the Lions a dozen years ago."

Peter Bills, writing in The Independent, believes that the referees for the upcoming Lions Tests could cause unwanted headlines.

"Beyond much argument, the three best referees in the world are Mark Lawrence and Jonathan Kaplan of South Africa plus Alain Rolland of Ireland. Perhaps in that order, too. They are smart, switched on, in control, calm and assured. Everything you want to see, in fact, in a top class official.

"The good news is that all three will referee matches on the Lions tour. Lawrence will take charge of the June 13 match between Western Province and the Lions, Kaplan officiating at the tourists' match against the Sharks three days earlier. Rolland will do the game between the Emerging Springboks and the Lions at Newlands, Cape Town.

"Alas, the bad news is that the closest they will be to the action when it really counts, in the three Test matches, will be on a seat somewhere in the grandstands at ABSA Stadium Durban, Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria and Coca Cola Park, Johannesburg.

"Some of the best players in the world from South Africa and the countries of the British Isles and Ireland will be refereed in the crucial Tests by second rate officials."

Lions captain and his Springbok counterpart know that immortality or ignominy awaits according to Hugh Godwin in the Independent on Sunday.

"Paul O'Connell and his British and Irish Lions will hit Johannesburg tomorrow at dawn. A few hours later, John Smit will pass through on his way to join the Springbok squad in Pretoria before Friday's warm-up match in Namibia. Two captains from different hemispheres on common ground; each of them well aware of the weight of Lions history and the crushing effect it has on the losers.

"...The Munster lock insisted that it won't be the altitude at five matches, including the Second and Third Tests, which gets his men, and the squad have been told the height above sea level at which they will be playing is not significant, though it has been catered for in training."

Six weeks and 10 games to achieve greatness. That's the challenge facing the 2009 Lions as they set off for South Africa on Sunday evening writes Paul Ackford in the Sunday Telegraph.

"The 36 players take with them 7,500 pieces of kit, ranging from shoe bags to monogrammed wallets, and will earn a basic fee of £38,000, plus a bonus of £10,000 if they win the series. All this for doing something they love. I hope they realise how lucky they are.

"A Lions odyssey is the last of the great adventures. The recent Grand Slam-winning tours of Graham Henry's All Blacks come close, but in this truncated sporting world, where nations slip in and slip out to play their two Tests, a Lions extravaganza stands supreme."

The Lions will be embraced if not cheered when they face the Springboks next month according to Eddie Butler in the Observer.

"South Africa is different, if only because there's no jet lag to blur the front and back of the six weeks spent there. It was here that the Lions came in 1997, on the first tour of the professional age, when the whole notion of hammering one team out of four in just a few short weeks was being seriously questioned.

"Coached then, as now, by Ian McGeechan, the Lions swept the doubters aside. In fact, they made the Lions hot property. On all fronts, from re-establishing rugby credentials to developing new business opportunities, there is a cosiness to relations with South Africa."

On the eve of this season's Heineken Cup Final clash with Leicester and with another Lions tour looming, Owen Slot of The Times catches up with Leinster and Ireland's Brian O'Driscoll.

"Given the heap of honours that Brian O’Driscoll may win at this season’s end, it seems strange to relate that, at its start, he went out of his way, for the first time in his career, in search of help from a sports psychologist. O’Driscoll is a straightforward guy and likes to tell you so. “I am not Jonny,” he said, in reference to Jonny Wilkinson, his former Lions team-mate in the No 10 shirt. “I don’t overanalyse.”

"He will also tell you that he is “very sceptical” of sports psychologists and that he has “come across a fair few cowboys in my time”. But he does not mind explaining that, in the autumn, after the most average season of his career, “I felt I needed something to kick-start my game again, to just get me back thinking positively and reinforce something that somewhere inside me I knew about myself. I didn’t want another season to just go by the wayside.”"

Paul O'Connell is constructing an argument as to why his Lions can beat South Africa. Paul Ackford writes in the Daily Telegraph.

"O'Connell's analysis is not bad as far as it goes. In my book the Lions are light in important areas such as raw talent and charisma, but there is no doubt that they will arrive in South Africa with more know-how of what it takes to win games and, given the length of the tour, that is a precious commodity with which to travel.

"The 6ft 6in O'Connell has matured noticeably since he dwarfed Ian McGeechan when introduced last month as the Lions skipper. He has always been an authoritative figure in the teams he has represented, but that day he seemed a touch cowed by the honour and responsibility. As the Lions set off, he appears more comfortable in the role and determined to do things his way."

He played for New Zealand as a boy, but a lot has happened to Riki Flutey since then. He explains to Brian Viner in The Independent why pulling on a Lions shirt fills him with pride, and recalls the jail incident that kept Bin Laden off the front pages back home.

"His dark-brown eyes glitter even now at the recollection; even as an England player about to visit South Africa with the Lions, he is too honest, or guileless, or both, to play down the passionate desire, that bubbled inside him for years, to play for the All Blacks. Nor did it ever seem as if that desire would remain unrequited. He played for the national team at every age level, for New Zealand schools, and for New Zealand Maori. His schoolboy team-mates included Aaron Mauger, Kevan Mealamu and Richie McCaw, all destined to wear the Silver Fern at the highest level. But not Flutey. He joined Wellington Hurricanes where he was a victim of his versatility, wearing 9, 10, 12 and sometimes 15, never nailing down one position as his own.

"In the end, like a Kiwi Dick Whittington, he decided to seek his fortune in London (first with London Irish and then Wasps, although next season he will play for Brive). And with his selection first for England and now the Lions, the decision to switch hemispheres, which took much soul-searching and the encouragement of his mentor, the former All Black hooker Norm Hewitt, is triumphantly vindicated."

Alyson Rudd travels to the Ospreys' cafe to run the rule over Lions wing Shane Williams in The Times.

"The café at the Ospreys academy in Neath is busy, but a few players stand out. Lee Byrne and Ian Evans stride around confidently, say hello, let me hold a tape measure to their throats. Somewhere among them is Shane Williams. I cannot see him at first. He is the shortest and the shyest and even though he is the one player who has been warned that there is a reporter with a tape measure on the loose, he looks the most perplexed.

"Wrapping a tape around Williams's bare chest is among the most surreal of many odd moments in my career. We have barely exchanged words and I am pinching his biceps and shouting out to the photographer that his left thigh is bigger than his right. But gradually we both see the funny side and he admits he is not feeling too awkward, although he would be if he was not in top physical condition.

“One of my fears is getting embarrassed in public, making a fool of myself,” Williams said. “I'm probably more confident on the rugby field than I am anywhere else. It took me a long time to be comfortable with people. Sometimes I find it very difficult meeting and greeting for the first time. That is something I've had to overcome. It really was a phobia of mine.”

The task for the Lions is daunting and success no more than a dream. But Ian McGeechan is a man who inspires daring dreams, writes Patrick Collins in the Daily Mail.

"But the huge landmark is already looming; the selection of the first Test team. ‘That’s got to be a really hard job,’ he says. ‘Because if it’s hard, then I’ll know that everyone’s in the frame. ‘Come Test week, I want to have to make difficult decisions. It’s the turning point of every tour. You see, every player has to believe he’s got a chance of making the team. That’s why he’s on the tour. But the real strength of a Lion comes after I’ve picked the side. And I’ll find it in the players who don’t get picked.’

Yet again, his experience raises its head. ‘Best example of that?’ he says. ‘Jason Leonard. He was a Test player in ’93, but in ’97 he wasn’t picked for the first Test. All he did, he made sure that the chosen props, Tom Smith and Paul Wallace, had everything they needed to perform in the Test match. 'Now that to me is the ultimate Lion. You can be a Test Lion, that’s easy. But to be like Jason Leonard, to hide your disappointment and help the cause: that’s the ultimate’."

The apparent decision not to replace Tom Shanklin is a big gamble by the tourists according to Stephen Jones in the Sunday Times.

"The Sunday Times understands that the Lions have decided not to replace the injured Tom Shanklin and to tour with a party of 36 instead of 37 - letting loose for the outside-centre position the triumvirate of Leigh Halfpenny, who has played only 24 professional games, Keith Earls, with two caps, and Luke Fitzgerald. None of them is widely known in the world game.

"The idea in increasing the original size of the party from 36 to 37 was to give cover in the event of Munster, with their large Lions contingent, reaching the Heineken Cup final. Now, with the powerful Shanklin out of the tour, the Lions will leave the party as it is. This is a big gamble and will also mean that with Brian O’Driscoll the only top-line outside-centre in the party, the illustrious Irishman could be wrapped in cotton wool for the whole tour, appearing sparingly, possibly as rarely as twice before the first Test.

"The likely appeal by Alan Quinlan, the Irish flanker, against a 12-week ban for gouging is a major complication."

It has gone down in Lions folklore - the infamous battle cry that saw the 1974 tourists fight fire with fire against a team hellbent on physical intimidation, as Welsh great JPR Williams remembers in The Independent.

"Among the multitude of soundbites on the deeds of the British and Irish Lions, the great JPR Williams needed just one word to describe the victorious All Black-defeating class of 1971: "resilient".

When asked for one word to sum up their 1974 counterparts, Williams had no hesitation in firing back: "aggressive"."

Mick Cleary, in his blog for The Daily Telegraph, believes that Ian McGeechan's future at Wasps has no bearing on his job with the Lions.

"News that Ian McGeechan is being moved aside at Wasps will come as a surprise to those relishing the thought of him leading the Lions into battle into South Africa. There could be no man better suited to the task.

"Why, then, the turn of events at Wasps ?

"Club rugby is an entirely different set-up. It's a time-consuming, relentless slog. There is no respite, no down time. There is little doubt that Wasps made a pig's ear of their arrangements with regard to McGeechan and Shaun Edwards being on duty with the Lions and Wales respectively.

"The notion that everyone could do all jobs without any knock-out impact was plain daft. It's not possible. The previous Wasps board agreed to those terms of reference, grateful in parlous times for the club that a few hundred thousand pounds worth of salary was being picked up elsewhere. McGeechan's wages over this season have been picked up entirely by the Lions. But there was a price to pay for that."

The Independent's Peter Bills believes that the Lions could do with learning a thing or two from London Irish's veteran fly-half Mike Catt.

"It comes to something when a 37 year-old South African is the star of the English rugby Premiership's play-off semi finals weekend.

"Mike Catt's performance for London Irish in their match against London rivals Harlequins was audacious. He steered the club to this weekend's final and a meeting with Leicester with a brilliant playmaker's display. Catt's vision tormented Harlequins, putting the ball behind them and dropping it into touch deep in their own 22 time and time again. He orchestrated their demise with an elegance and panache that put him in a class of his own.

"It was a wondrous spectacle, a thoroughly heart-warming display which reminded us of Catt's supreme skills and rugby intelligence. He finished off a virtuoso display with an interception and a walk-in try under the posts that sealed Harlequins' fate. If ever there was an example of 'once you've got the skills, you always have them' this was surely it."

Willie John McBride and Gareth Edwards offer their thoughts on the Lions' chances in South Africa in the Sunday Telegraph.

"What did you make of the party? Is it one you're happy with? McBride: If anyone knows anything about the Lions and South Africa, it must be McGeechan. He's been through this all before and knows what he wants to get out of the tour. But I do have some concerns.

I'm not sure how many of these players have experience of South Africa because it's only when the sun is blazing down, the ground is as hard as hell, it's dusty and the air is thin that you know what you're up against. In those circumstances you don't want too many players on the wrong side of 30 and the Lions have plenty of those.

I'm talking particularly of the back row. I was 34 when I was last there, and I was lucky that there were guys who carried me. I used to train in the morning and go to bed after lunch. Professional players know how to pace themselves, but too often I've seen – and it happened in Australia – that players were whacked by the time the second or third Test came along. They weren't ready to play.

Edwards: I thought Tom Croft should have made the squad, but the Six Nations was so ordinary that nobody really stood out. Right up until the last game people were still wondering who should be going on the trip. Very few players put their hands up. I couldn't really tell you who the scrum-halves should have been, let alone the props."

The former Springboks coach Nick Mallett has predicted a series defeat for Ian McGeechan's British and Irish Lions when their tour of South Africa starts at the end of this month. He talks to Peter Bills in the Independent on Sunday.

""I just think they'll find it tough, really, really tough," said Mallett, who is now in charge of Italy. "The ball-handling and running ability of the South African tight forwards is almost unmatched. Guys like the Sharks prop 'The Beast' Tendai Mtawarira, Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield, John Smit, Bismarck du Plessis and Pierre Spies, these guys are quick and can really pass a ball.

"They're not going to ground with the ball. If they do, they're offloading as they fall to create momentum. They love offloading in the tackle. If South Africa play in the style of the Bulls and the Sharks, which I think they will do, then the Lions are going to have to match athleticism with athleticism and that won't be easy. A guy like [the lock] Simon Shaw is very strong in tight, close play. He's a big, solid forward, very effective at close range. But I am not sure he can pop up at outside centre and throw spin passes. Will he do that?"

The spate of injuries to players in the Lions squad are one in the eye for the early selection according to Eddie Butler in The Observer.

"Was Shanklin really required for a Wednesday night Magners League derby so soon after the Heineken Cup semi against Leicester? Well, this was more than just an end-of-season dogfight. This was a rather desperate scramble by both Welsh regions for automatic qualification for next season's Heineken Cup.

"As David Young, the Cardiff Blues coach, pointed out, there would have been many accusations aimed at him of devaluing a tournament if he had rested his Lions. Exposure to risk is a sign of healthy competition.

It underlines the need for anybody on Lions stand-by – and even those, such as Steve Borthwick, who are not – to keep in shape. They are but somebody else's tweak away from a ticket south."

This month the British and Irish Lions go to South Africa for one of the toughest series in rugby union. But 35 years ago, the team went to the country under very different conditions, Kevin Mitchell writes in The Observer.

"In early May, 1974, Willie John McBride, a big-boned farming man from Ballymena in Northern Ireland, stood up in a hotel in London in front of 31 fellow amateur rugby players who had gathered to leave for South Africa under his leadership. The 34-year-old second row had been considered over the hill even on the previous tour, his fourth British Lions campaign, when they beat New Zealand in 1971. Now he was readying himself for an entirely different challenge, against a team for whom physical intimidation was considered a patriotic duty, a country the Lions had not beaten in a series for 78 years. He looked around the room, and feet shuffled as he began to speak. The players knew what was on his mind; it wasn't just rugby.

"I know there are pressures on you," McBride said, "but if you have any doubts, I would ask you to turn around and look behind you."

At the back of the room, there were two large open doors.

The captain continued: "Gentlemen, if you have any doubts about going on this tour, I want you to be big enough to stand up now and leave this room. Because you are no use to me, and you're no use to this team. There will be no stain on your character, no accusations if you do so, but you must be honest and committed. I've been in South Africa before and there's going to be a lot of physical intimidation, a lot of cheating. So if you're not up for a fight, there's the door."

In The Independent, Peter Bills selects his all-time British and Irish Lions XV.

"The interesting thing is that some selections are easy. A very few players, like Gareth Edwards for example, would walk into the side. Likewise at full-back. Has there been a more complete, all-round No. 15 than the great J.P.R. Williams? Somehow, I doubt it. There have been some excellent Lions full-backs, but Williams stands supreme.

"Jack Kyle had some serious opposition at outside half, principally from Cliff Morgan and especially Barry John. But Kyle's genius earned him the decision.

"But in other positions, the choice is tough. I chose Tony O'Reilly on one wing because his try scoring feats on those 1955 and 1959 tours were simply extraordinary. The Irishman scored 16 tries in 15 appearances in South Africa in '55 and then 22 more in 23 appearances in '59 in New Zealand and Australia. 38 tries on two tours? Astonishing.

"No-one has ever beaten and now never will surpass those records. On the other wing, I have gone for that brilliant Welsh flyer Ken Jones, who toured in 1950 with the Lions. Jones was the Welsh sprint champion for seven consecutive years and won silver in the 4x100 metres relay at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. Always a Newport man, he scored 146 tries in 293 appearances for the club, and got 17 for Wales during his 44 caps."

Peter Bills, writing in The Independent, believes that the Lions will need a first-class attitude in South Africa, and that they could learn from South Africa's recent rugby history.

"The Lions tour starts on 30 May and ends on 4 July. Just 10 matches and then they are consigned to history. Yet history teaches us a very valuable lesson as to attitudes which can prevail, even against the most enormous odds. Back in 1995, the Springboks scrum half at that memorable World Cup in South Africa, was Joost van der Westhuizen, a fast, brilliant, competitive player.

"When those Springboks won that World Cup, it was an emotional moment for the newly unified country. But it was what van der Westhuizen said later that had a powerful resonance as regards future teams, whatever the sport.

"In a sense, it wasn't about winning the World Cup" he said, to some surprise. "It was about achieving our goal; that was what meant more to us."

"The South African was spot-on in his view. A trophy is ultimately a trophy, a piece of silverware and no more. Victories are wonderful and celebrated regally. But it is not the actual raising of some trophy that will thereafter disappear behind closely guarded doors for the next few years, which is the triumph."

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Brian Moore re-states his belief that the Lions squad has been selected with confrontation in mind.

"When the Lions took a hammering in the first Test on their 1989 tour of Australia, McGeechan made plain the necessity of confrontation in the remaining Tests; both of which the Lions went on to win, securing a place in Lions history as the only side to win a series after losing the opening Test.

"When subsequent games turned rough, McGeechan refused to apologise in the usual mealy-mouthed British way. He and Clive Rowlands, the manager, deflected all criticism, which enraged the Australian press and delighted the Lions squad in equal measure. The fact is, McGeechan likes his players to play on the edge and is comfortable with the belligerent and cantankerous. However, this hidden familiarity with conflict has not always manifested itself sufficiently, as a study of McGeechan's extraordinary Lions coaching record attests."

Former Wales international Barry John questions the omission of current captain Ryan Jones from the Lions squad - read his thoughts in the Wales on Sunday.

"I can still remember the contribution and his leadership skills for Wales when we should have beaten South Africa in the second Test on last summer’s tour. Ryan, for me, showed what a world-class player he is on that occasion and that is what the Lions will miss this summer. I certainly thought the knowledge that he has led Wales to a Grand Slam would have swung selection for him.What will make it worse for Ryan is that his omission probably came at the inclusion of his Wales team-mate, Andy Powell."

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Paul Ackford believes Tuesday's Lions squad announcement was a two-fingered take-that reaction to the last Lions tour, orchestrated and led by Sir Clive Woodward.

"Woodward took injured players to New Zealand; anyone who had so much as an in-growing toenail wasn't considered this time. Woodward booked 45 players on to the plane; McGeechan opted for 37, and only increased to that number because a Heineken Cup final between Munster and Cardiff could take as many as 14 players out of the mix the weekend before the Lions' first match.

"Woodward had two separate and distinct coaching teams to look after the midweek and Saturday outfits; McGeechan is taking just two outside-halves to "give them a clear shot at controlling and developing the rugby we want to play". And to think McGeechan was a coach on Woodward's ill-fated expedition. Ouch."

Club champions of Europe can add to their legend by driving tourists towards glory in South Africa according to Stephen Jones in the Sunday Times.

"Munster had eight players in the original 2009 Lions squad, as many as all of England, four times as many as Scotland, and almost all of the eight were in key positions. With the sad loss of Tomás O’Leary, who broke his left ankle playing against the Scarlets on Friday, they are down to seven but remain the core. They have an overwhelmingly crucial role to play. If the Lions win the series, then we can add individual all-time greatness to the list of Munster qualities.

"They will have none of their usual advantages, they will be way, way out of their normal comfort zone. The collective will be different, they will be playing at stadiums that make even the gleaming new Thomond Park look rather reserved and quaint, they will be exposed to the full blast of a Lions Test match, something that renders the Heineken Cup just a cosy local tiff. And they will have to dominate, not simply exist. The mental edge they have over most opposition will be absent, too. Bakkies Botha and company will give not a fig for the reputation of Munster (or of Leinster, Cardiff or anyone).

By overlooking Tom Croft in favour of Alan Quinlan, the Lions have decided where to win the war according to Stuart Barnes in the Sunday Times.

"The Lions can lose the lineouts and win the series, but if the battle at the breakdown is lost so too is hope of a third series win in South Africa. Hence the much-maligned decision to sacrifice the towering potential of Tom Croft for the nefarious tricks of Alan Quinlan.

"More than any other selection, this one reveals the thinking behind the Lions’ strategy. Gerald Davies opened Tuesday’s press conference by saying they intended to play “smart rugby”. For smart rugby, read Munster rugby – and for Munster rugby, read brilliance at the breakdown."

Writing in the Scotland on Sunday, Iain Morrison offers his thoughts on Ian McGeechan's Lions squad.

"One commentator complained of the lack of "stardust" in the squad but the modern reality is that top-level matches are rarely won by moments of inspiration. Instead, the winning team usually relies upon the brutal application of relentless effort allied to correct decision-making.

"The omission of James "Stardust" Hook means that the remaining playmakers are primarily kickers and it is a little worrying that McGeechan has not given himself even the option of playing a more expansive, ball-in-hand game. However, he is experienced enough to know what he can achieve with a scratch team on a six-week tour. The answer is a lot less than he would like and, given the players he has selected, there will be precious few surprises in the way the Lions approach the Tests."

Limerick lad Jerry Flannery says Irish must forge tour spirit but Tomas O'Leary is an early casualty. Hugh Godwin writes in the Independent on Sunday.

"Munster teamwork was a major plank of McGeechan's planning when he revealed on Tuesday that eight of his 37 tourists would be from the European champions, and it was teamwork which smashed poor O'Leary out of the trip. On Wednesday in training at the University of Limerick, the Munster players had chaired the 21-year-old back Keith Earls on to the field and then jokingly ignored another of the more surprising choices to tour, Alan Quinlan. "When Quinny came out no one said anything," said Jerry Flannery, the hooker also among Munster's amazing eight. "Then eventually we all jumped on him and pulled his shorts off."

Munster deserve to have the largest contingent in the Lions squad but they might end up with only two players in the team according to Eddie Butler in the Observer.

"Is there any danger is placing so much faith in the ways of one corner of Ireland?

"...The other thing about these Irish and British Lions concerns the number of Munster players in the Test team. In the positions covering numbers 12-15, Munster have only Keith Earls. Impressive as the player has been in any position, from centre to full-back, it is unlikely that somebody who did not feature in the Six Nations is going to be in the starting team for the first Test in Durban on 20 June.

"In the forwards, O'Connell will obviously play. He is the line-out talisman of the party and, as such, must go head to head with the best second row in the world, Victor Matfield. O'Connell will not only set the cultural tone, but will also be the barometer of the pressure levels on the field. If he is going well there will be grounds to believe his team can go well."

Ireland's Brian O'Driscoll admits he coveted the Lions captaincy but will do everything to back his compatriot Paul O'Connell in South Africa. Read his thoughts in the Observer.

"I am honestly delighted for Paul O'Connell to be named as Lions captain, and it's a great endorsement for Irish rugby for the Lions to have another Irish leader. Ian McGeechan has made it very clear that he savours having a captain in the forwards. He has done it before, most notably with Martin Johnson in '97, and he felt the focal character needed to be there. Paul was the obvious choice.

"Even though it wasn't too much of a surprise to have Paul confirmed, it still stung a little bit. Of course I would love to have been captain and it hurts to feel like you have been overlooked, but it was natural for me to feel that kind of hunger and ambition as a previous captain still playing, and I would have been more worried if I hadn't felt disappointed."

Writing in The Scotsman, Alan Massie finds fault with Ian McGeechan's selection for this summer's Lions tour of South Africa.

"Natural disappointment at the tiny Scottish representation in the Lions squad is made all the sharper by the thought that it looks like the weakest Lions party since the 1960s. It's difficult to see them winning one Test, let alone the series. They will be overpowered and outpaced in the back row, and probably cleaned out at the line-out. Fifteen to 11 should be all right, but the half-backs look flakey.

"In 1955 the Lions selectors boldly decided to take nobody of 30 or over, even if this meant excluding the great Jackie Kyle. Eleven of Ian McGeechan's squad would have been omitted if the same criterion had been applied. Admittedly players last longer in the professional game – amateurs of 30 were usually well-advanced in their off-field career. It is also true that England won the World Cup with their 'Dad's Army'. Nevertheless, there are too many veterans past their best in this squad."

After all the hype around the Lions announcement the former Welsh and Lions great, Gareth Edwards, offers some sobering advice for those selected and casts his eye over those who missed out in The Telegraph.

"This is a very dangerous period with huge matches ahead and minds can wander off down to South Africa. Injuries can happen any time but there is only one way to play rugby and that is flat out with 100 per cent commitment and you must have your head right when you play.

I remember before one of my Lions tours I played for Cardiff against the Barbarians on the Easter Saturday – a huge game for us in those days and a match for which I was very motivated. Then, after the festivities of the weekend I suddenly got asked on the Monday morning if I could help out for the Barbarians against Swansea that afternoon; Roger Pickering had gone down with an injury.

You don’t turn the Barbarians down but I wasn’t quite there mentally and nearly picked up a nasty injury when I stuck out an arm a bit half-heartedly as somebody broke on my inside and I was rewarded with a stinging pain in my shoulder. I narrowly avoided a dislocation and missing the tour. Definitely a bit of a wake-up call.blockquote>

April 22, 2009

Posted by Jean Smyth on 04/22/2009

Irish eyes smiling on their Lions

Ireland contributed 14 players to the 37-man Lions squad and as Gerry Thornley writes in The Irish Times - it's something that the Irish should be immensely proud of.

"SIMPLY AN astonishing day in the history of Irish rugby in what continues to be a dream season. As expected, Paul O’Connell was yesterday unveiled as the eighth post-war Irish captain of the Lions, and the 11th of 27 Lions tour skippers overall, but furthermore, he will lead a 37-man squad containing an unprecedented 14 Irishmen.

In equalling the record of one club, Leicester, Munster fans will no doubt quickly have deduced that their contingent compares more than favourably to the Tigers’ haul of four years ago in Clive Woodward’s 45-man squad, and yesterday their province equalled England’s tally of eight.

Included amongst their numbers is the 21-year-old Keith Earls, which crowns something of a stunning rookie season as, effectively, the tour’s bolter, and Alan Quinlan – not so much a bolter as a thunderbolt. Fittingly therefore, they and the rest of them will be led by their talisman O’Connell, the first Limerick man to captain the Lions.”

Posted by Jean Smyth on 04/22/2009

Lions lack 'stardust'

Stuart Barnes has told The Times that he thinks Ian McGeechan's Lions selection is too conservative and that the Springboks will now know exactly what to expect from his side.

"I am disappointed because I feel it is a much too defensive selection. The decision to leave Tom Croft out has left me absolutely stunned and I just feel the inclusion of Stephen Ferris, Alan Quinlan and Joe Worsley is too conservative.

I thought Ferris would go as the defender to Croft's attacking strength at 6. But the line-out balance looks very strange and with Worsley there and Quinlan this looks to me like a back row that is picked to defend. It looks a bit like the 1997 back row, where Tim Rodber and Lawrence Dallaglio went toe-to-toe with the Boks.

My major worry is that lightning doesn't strike twice and I hope we don't think we can just defend our way to a series win, because I don't think it will happen this time around."

Posted by Jean Smyth on 04/22/2009

Questions over Lions selections

Peter Bills writing in The Independent feels that perhaps the achievements of Munster have influenced the selection decisions of the 2009 Lions to such an extent that it leaves just a few too many questions and not enough answers.

"Have the 2009 Lions been overly seduced by the achievements of a strong provincial team? Have they been too influenced by Munster’s exploits in the Heineken Cup? Will many of those Munstermen be exposed once they get to South Africa and slip on the famous jersey of the British & Irish Lions and confront the mighty Springboks?

These were some of the questions being asked in London last night after the announcement of the 37 man squad. Irishman Paul Wallace, who was the Lions tight head in the winning 1997 series against the Springboks, said “I wonder if the selectors have been too influenced by Munster’s successes.

“I think a few of the Irish boys might be fortunate to have been included. I certainly think a player like Tom Croft, the England back row man, is very unfortunate to have missed out.”

Posted by Jean Smyth on 04/22/2009

Geech the gambler

There are eight Munstermen in the Lions squad travelling to South Africa this summer and Eddie Butler, writing in The Guardian, believes that Ian McGeechan has gambled with his selections.

"It seems that there is a seventh nation in the Six Nations, or an Ireland beyond Ireland. It's that old hotbed called Munster, and they have received a reward for patenting the tightest bonding agent in sport by having two players unused by Ireland in the championship selected for the Lions: Keith Earls and Alan Quinlan.

Munster's march towards another Heineken Cup title was always going to offer Ian McGeechan a supplementary selection zone. The Irish province's bedrock devotion to the collective effort was ideal compensation for Scotland's surprising flatness in the Six Nations and for the lack of togetherness in the Wales team, an international extension of the Ospreys' inability to gel.

Ryan Jones, captain of both country and region, carries the can and does not make the first plane to South Africa. His consolation may be that he did not make the starting squad last time either, but returned as one of the few successes from the 2005 tour to New Zealand."

April 20, 2009

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 04/20/2009

'Big Ted' in Lions limbo

The Lions are wrestling with one of the biggest decisions over their squad for South Africa - whether to pick England prop Andrew Sheridan. Peter Jackson writes in the Daily Mail.

"His status among the supposed automatic selections in a party under Paul O'Connell's captaincy became the subject of increasing concern over the course of the Six Nations. The choice boils down to Sheridan or Munster's Marcus Horan, a permanent member of Ireland's Grand Slam pack.

"There is understood to be a view among some of the coaching coterie headed by Ian McGeechan questioning whether 'Big Ted' has done enough to get the nod. If the verdict goes against him, Sheridan, all 6ft 5in and almost 20 stone of him, will be literally the biggest casualty of the eightmonth selection process which ends tomorrow with the announcement of the 35 or 36 players."

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 04/20/2009

'Team spirit' is vital component for Lions

Manager Gerald Davies heralds Jason Leonard as a player who had what it took to bring much-needed unity to touring party. David Hands writes in The Times.

"If he says it once, he says it 20 times: “team spirit” is what Gerald Davies seeks in the 2009 Lions - the very quality that the past two tour parties so conspicuously failed to muster. Make no mistake, the 2001 Lions coached by Graham Henry in Australia and their successors, coached by Sir Clive Woodward in New Zealand four years later, wanted to win, but, for differing reasons, the coherence of the party was undermined.

"It sounds so simple. Surely any group of players can achieve that. But as the 2009 management group gather at lunchtime today in a Heathrow hotel to finalise the details of the playing party that will be named tomorrow to tour South Africa, they will be seeking those individuals who, by their attitude as well as their playing ability, will make a difference."

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 04/20/2009

Lions chance inspires Edwards

Shaun Edwards has been winning trophies and lifting silverware most of his sporting life - either as a rugby league player or a union coach - but happily admits he will be taking a quantum leap when he accompanies the Lions to South Africa next month as assistant coach. Brendan Gallagher writes in the Daily Telegraph.

"Edwards, 42, has been as busy as ever leading into Tuesday's squad announcement. He's just returned from a week's 'holiday' in Jamaica, organised rather optimistically as a chance to chill before the Lions show kicks off in earnest. In reality, after a testing period with Wasps and Wales, he spent more time diving into his emails and surfing the net for rugby updates than snorkelling and swimming in the Caribbean.

"I'm just rubbish at relaxing," Edwards admits. "There was a Lions squad to help pick, two more Wasps games to consider, phone calls to make, video clips to watch, the Springboks to think about. I tried to do a bit of swimming and stuff but it didn't really happen. To be honest I'm happier when I'm busy anyway. My hobby is my job. The truth is I would work for nothing – though don't broadcast that too much, the chairman might be reading."

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 04/20/2009

Physique comes first in Ian McGeechan's Lions selections

Ian McGeechan's choice will reflect the special challenge of playing South Africa on their home turf according to Rob Kitson in the Guardian.

"Character, teamship, temperament, resilience .... all are keynote requirements which must resonate and resurface whenever Lions teams take the field. From today onwards it ceases to be about individual nationality or patriot games and becomes a collective mission to imbue the red jersey with bottomless quantities of spirit, skill, passion and pride.

"Without a cute game plan, too, the 2009 vintage will be dead meat regardless of the individuals involved. It seems to have become a habit of the Lions to run into hosts in ominous shape: as Sir Clive Woodward admitted, even the best touring team in Christendom would have struggled to beat the All Blacks four years ago.

"South Africa, if they get it right under their somewhat mercurial coach, Peter de Villiers, have the capacity to be just as destructive. The Lions will require a bit of luck, quite apart from anything else."

April 19, 2009

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 04/19/2009

The day Scott Gibbs felled Os du Randt

Scott Gibbs provided the seminal image of the last Lions tour of South Africa more than a decade ago. He talks to Simon Roberts in the Wales on Sunday.

"The Welshman’s legendary charge at Os du Randt, the Springboks prop and inspirational totem in the second Test has become the stuff of legend, going down in rugby folklore, let alone Lions folklore.

"Gibbs, just back in union from a hugely successful stint in rugby league, almost single-handedly ended the ‘Boks’ hopes of a Test series victory there and then with that shuddering hit in Durban. The hosts – not to mention Du Randt, a symbol of South Africa’s macho culture – never recovered from Gibbs’ wrecking ball performance and the Lions recorded a 2-1 Test series victory."

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 04/19/2009

Lions to leave out Borthwick, Jones and Cipriani

Lions coach Ian McGeechan will rock three of this season’s Six Nations captains when his 35-man squad for the tour to South Africa next month is revealed on Tuesday, so writes Ian stafford in the Mail on Sunday.

	Ireland lock Paul O'Connell is set to lead the Lions to South Africa © Getty Images

"England skipper Steve Borthwick will learn that he is not considered Lions material, Wales’s leader Ryan Jones will almost certainly join him on the reject list — and Brian O’Driscoll, who led Ireland to their first Grand Slam for 61 years, will find himself passed over for the captaincy of McGeechan’s squad in favour of his Irish vice-captain, Paul O’Connell.

"...Troubled golden boy Danny Cipriani, ignored by England manager Martin Johnson for the entire Six Nations campaign, will find himself similarly snubbed by the British and Irish Lions despite the fact that his director of rugby and head coach at Wasps are McGeechan and Shaun Edwards, one of the four tour assistants."

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 04/19/2009

Prepare for the most brutal test

Lions players will have to be brave in the face of a ferocious Springboks side if they are to repeat the heroics of 1997 according to Lawrence Dallaglio in the Sunday Times.

"Talk is necessary in the changing room but it is also cheap. You can all agree to do it, be convinced you’re going to play the toughest, most aggressive Test you’ve ever played, but when you get out there, it’s another story. After we won the first Test in Cape Town 12 years ago, McGeechan pulled us aside and told us that a Springbok was one animal, a wounded Springbok another.

"We got our heads around what we would have to deal with in the second Test and prepared for the most brutal physical onslaught. Yet we were still surprised by their ferocity. For the first 20 minutes, we had one or two players who went into hiding, and only when we regained our composure and decided we all had to be up for the fight did we sort ourselves out.

"Billy Threadwell was the guy I felt sorry for when we played South Africa. He was the dentist in the England backroom team, the one responsible for stitching the wounded, and every time we played the Springboks, Billy would say two hands weren’t enough for a man in his business. Against the Boks, we weren’t doing our job if Billy had a quiet day."

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 04/19/2009

O’Connell to lead Lions in South Africa

Paul O'Connell, the giant lock from Limerick, has won the all-Ireland race to be captain of the 2009 British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa according to Stephen Jones in the Sunday Times.

"The move is not without its dangers. O’Connell, remarkably, will be the sixth Irishman to lead a Lions tour in the post-war era and most of the tours have had a gory end. The only Irishman to lead the Lions to victory is Willie John McBride, in 1974. It must also be said that among others, O’Connell was disappointing in New Zealand in 2005, his first Lions tour.

"The announcement on Tuesday will almost certainly reveal that at least two, if not all of the three marquee British fly-halves, Danny Cipriani, James Hook and Jonny Wilkinson, will miss the tour. Cipriani, the Wasps maestro, needs the game of a life against Bristol today, though even that might not be enough. Another big name, Gavin Henson, will not be fit in time for consideration, although the Lions coaches admire him greatly and will install him in the reserve squad.

"The plight of Scottish rugby is such that their contingent could be minuscule, perhaps even as few as two. Uncertainties on recent form have also dictated that even this weekend, the Lions selectors were ranging far and wide, trying to place together the final pieces of the jigsaw."

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 04/19/2009

McGeechan seeks something special in his Lions selection

Successful teams are about character as much as talent.Lions head coach Ian McGeechan will require warriors, men who possess an edge which distinguishes them from their peers according to Paul Ackford in the Sunday Telegraph.

"For that reason Danny Cipriani should not be allowed anywhere near the aeroplane. Cipriani, for all this gifts, makes too many errors, and his limited exposure to Test rugby has not eradicated that profligacy. If McGeechan takes Cipriani, the Lions travel on a wing and a prayer. Simon Taylor and James Haskell, two back-row men, also fit into that category. Neither has the temperament to prosper on the highveld. Both are too highly strung, too high maintenance. Adam Jones, despite a strident Welsh chorus of approval behind him, is another who doesn't look or feel right. Some folk have Jones ahead of Euan Murray or Phil Vickery in their likely tour party. What utter nonsense.

"If the jackpot Lions cocktail is resilience, a proven track-record and a smidgen of stardust, who then to consider? The majority of the squad pick themselves. When the Lions coaches gather at noon tomorrow for their final deliberations in a Heathrow hotel, they do so in the knowledge that the bulk of the party of 35 or 36 (depending on whether they want to take an extra back-row forward) is sorted. Lee Byrne, Delon Armitage, Shane Williams, Tommy Bowe, Brian O'Driscoll, Riki Flutey, Stephen Jones, Ronan O'Gara, Mike Phillips and Mike Blair in the backs; and Andrew Sheridan, Gethin Jenkins, Euan Murray, Jerry Flannery, Lee Mears, Ross Ford, Paul O'Connell, Alun-Wyn Jones, Donncha O'Callaghan, Tom Croft, Stephen Ferris, Joe Worsley, David Wallace, Martyn Williams and Jamie Heaslip up front all make the grade."

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 04/19/2009

How I made the Lions roar

For many rugby fans, the abiding memory of Lions tours and Tests is the celluloid experience of Living With Lions. And, more specifically, of Jim Telfer's stirring soliloquies. Richard Bath talks to him in The Scotsman.

"The single most important quality, says Telfer, is to pick a squad of team players. "Being former Lions ourselves, we were looking for players with good communication skills off the field, guys who could put to one side the fact that they were English or Welsh or whatever and feel that being a Lion was greater than being captain of Wales or England," says Telfer.

"Telfer is candid about the fact that nationality affects selection decisions. The Irish, he says, are good tourists; the Welsh are not. That wasn't an issue in 1997, however, as most of the Welsh players in the squad were among the former rugby league players who were central to the success of the tour.

"There's no doubt that some countries produce people who don't tour well. The Welsh get very homesick, so we had to choose extrovert Welshmen like Ieuan Evans. It was helped by the fact that lots of the Welshmen we took had been in rugby league and had seen a bit more of professional sport."

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 04/19/2009

Pace and power can help Lions reach giddy heights

Paul O'Connell will lead the forward charge as Ian McGeechan's troops face ultimate test against Boks, so writes Hugh Godwin in the Independent on Sunday.

"The Lions will not sing an anthem in South Africa this summer – "The Power of Four", that excruciating mix of politburo and classical pop played before matches on the last trip four years ago, has been quietly ditched – but "Ireland's Call" would be an apt refrain. The captaincy is a choice between Paul O'Connell and Brian O'Driscoll, and if the head coach, Ian McGeechan, stands by his own words he will take the side of Munster's ginger monster. Either way, the Grand Slam champions should be well represented in the squad to be named at a Heathrow hotel on Tuesday.

"It is a big ask to take on the world champions on their own turf with two of the three Tests at altitude and only six provincial matches in which to prepare. We know what the Lions won't do: take 45 players and a bunch of dirt-tracker coaches, as Sir Clive Woodward did in 2005. And they won't take unfit players, which places a cloud over Gavin Henson, Mike Tindall and Jonny Wilkinson, though Lee Byrne's foot injury appears to have healed in the nick of time."

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 04/19/2009

All eyes on the Lions catwalk

The Lions coach, Ian McGeechan, has faced plenty of problems in picking his squad – on Tuesday he will reveal his solutions. Eddie Butler writes in The Observer.

"Has anything else changed since the Six Nations? Only that Julian White put his hand up – and not just to land a sweet right on Andrew Sheridan's jaw. I'm just thinking of the midweek team, the dirt-trackers who have to put up and shut up for large parts of the tour, deemed ever so important for overall morale, but left increasingly to their own devices as the Test series approaches.

"It's a tough old trek for them around South Africa and they'll need a few tough old birds of their own. I'd be tempted to stick White on the plane and not give him too many stern lectures about hitting people."

April 18, 2009

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 04/18/2009

O'Driscoll gets my vote for captain this summer

Brian O'Driscoll's list of fans grows with Peter Jackson adding his name to the list in the Daily Mail.

"Rarely have the Lions had to choose between two more impeccably qualified contenders. Each meets the basic criterion of being sure of his Test place, something which the Lions ignored to their cost for two New Zealand tours, each one resulting in a 4-0 Blackwash.

"...As head coach, Ian McGeechan will have the final say. Significantly, he was a central figure 12 years ago when the Lions management, faced with a choice between Johnson and the equally outstanding Ieuan Evans, decided they wanted to send a ‘big, ugly’ lock to knock on the Springbok door rather than their comparatively diminutive Welsh merlin on the wing."

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 04/18/2009

Opportunity knocks for fringe players

Ian McGeechan has some golden tickets left for one of the greatest shows on earth according to Will Greenwood in the Daily Telegraph.

"There aren't many going spare, but there would be, by my reckoning, about five or six places left up for grabs on the Lions tour of South Africa.

"The players on the fringes have one final weekend in which to push hard for their place on the tour. It's their chance of a lifetime, and missing out, being player 37, the first reserve, would not bear thinking about. When the announcement is made, McGeechan, Gerald Davies and the rest of the coaching panel will be standing in front of the media scrum, flanked by their captain. The top Lion will have been flown in under cover of darkness, presuming of course that he has had to fly."

April 16, 2009

Posted by Huw Baines on 04/16/2009

Test match animals

Stephen Jones' latest Rolling Maul blog for The Times takes a look at the personalities needed to win a Lions tour.

"What will be the shape of the Lions party? I have reported on six tours, and got to know coach McGeechan a little over that time. I would guess that when the party emerges, there will be very few flyers taken and very few people named for the experience, possibly none.

"McGeechan likes what he once called "Test match animals." In Australia in 1989, the two Lions hookers were Brian Moore, who was small and had no great pretensions as an all-round footballer, and Ireland's Steve Smith, who was around four stone heavier than Moore, could throw, carry the ball and had a turn of foot in the loose.

"Moore played in all three Tests. He set out his stall, trained hard, played fanatically and made up for any physical shortfall. "Test match animal," was McGeechan's summary.Expect the party to be as full as possible with players of a similar attitude, a harshness, and intensity. The party is out soon, but fresh it will not be."

April 15, 2009

Posted by Huw Baines on 04/15/2009

Peel's the man

Dean Richards continues his Lions picks for The Times, with Dwayne Peel getting the nod at scrum-half.

"Until you get an inkling of how Ian McGeechan and his coaches want to play on the tour to South Africa, it is hard to nominate the best choice at half back. To be frank, I think it is one of the weakest areas in the squad, particularly when you look at the combinations that were available to the most successful Lions sides.

"You think of Gareth Edwards and Barry John or Phil Bennett during the glory years of the 1970s, but, on the most recent trip to South Africa, in 1997, there was an unexpected pairing of Matt Dawson and Gregor Townsend and that didn't turn out too badly. Matt was the third-choice scrum half behind Rob Howley and Austin Healey, while Gregor had floated between fly half and centre for Scotland but was preferred at 10 to Neil Jenkins, who played full back.

"To my mind, Dwayne Peel is as good a scrum half as any, with the two Englishmen, Harry Ellis and Danny Care, behind him. He may not have been first choice for Wales this year, but Dwayne knows what a Lions tour is like and his skill set is greater than that of Mike Phillips, who may be first choice if the Lions want to play an intensely physical game."

April 13, 2009

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 04/13/2009

South Africa could be vulnerable in the scrum

With two Lions tours to his name, Dean Richards knows what is required – he begins his squad selection with the forwards in The Times.

"Knowing Geech, I believe he will leave home with a good idea of his starting line-up but will keep an open mind. He will be very honest in his selection and if, as so often happens on a Lions tour, a player emerges from relative obscurity and demands a place, he will pick him — as he did Jeremy Guscott for the second match of the 1989 series in Australia.

"South Africa will field an outstanding pack in June but they lack world-class props. Victor Matfield will dictate the lineouts and their systems are so good that the only set-piece area where the Lions might find an advantage is the scrum. The tight five is where the Lions have three candidates who virtually pick themselves, the two props and the second row."

April 4, 2009

Posted by Huw Baines on 04/04/2009

Get well soon

Writing in The Independent, Eddie Jones believes that the Lions need Gavin Henson in South Africa.

"I suspect there are as many contrasting views about this particular player as there are people to hold them but, to my mind, he is a high-class operator. Indeed, the Welshman is everything a coach wants in an inside centre – he is big and powerful, carries the ball well, has footwork, can kick miles and can tackle – and by way of extras, he can do a turn at full-back when required. The only thing you question is where his head is. If his attitude is good and he is in the right zone, Henson is a major asset.

"It appears he will be out of the game for six weeks and, unsurprisingly, he is pretty down about it. But the timing is not entirely hopeless. I know Ian McGeechan, the Lions head coach, is adamant that he will not take injured players on tour, but that is not quite the same as taking players who aren't match fit. If Henson is back on his feet and running well by the middle of next month, I'd go with him. The Lions have half a dozen matches before the opening Test against the Springboks, so he would have plenty of opportunity to recapture that crucial sharpness that comes with playing regular rugby. It would not be as if Ian had given a plane ticket to a bloke in the vague hope that he might come up trumps by the time the serious contests arrive.

"For a number of reasons, I hope things turn out well for Henson. I know he has this reputation as a "problem player", and I cannot pretend that his celebrity lifestyle doesn't raise the odd issue here and there. But I detect a lot of good in him: he likes to enjoy himself and frequently does so in the company of his colleagues, which suggests a degree of popularity. The trick is to find his positive side and channel it to the benefit of the team. Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards did that successfully when Wales won the Grand Slam last year and, with their good cop-bad cop routine, could do so again with the Lions."

March 30, 2009

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 03/30/2009

O'Driscoll deserves chance to lead by example

One of the easiest decisions facing the coach, Ian McGeechan, and the manager, Gerald Davies, is whether Brian O'Driscoll or Paul O'Connell should be the man who lands in South Africa carrying the Lions mascot, according to Tim Glover in the Independent on Sunday.

"The most obvious answer is O'Driscoll, the Ireland captain who inspired his country with crucial tries at key moments. He also has unfinished business with the Lions after a lamentable tour to New Zealand in 2005, when his world was turned upside down by a double hit in the opening minutes of the First Test.

"O'Driscoll would love the chance to lead again and he deserves it. That would leave O'Connell, a towering presence in the Irish second row, as vice-captain and leader of the pack. However, the punters have backed the lock forward and Irish bookmakers have stopped taking money on O'Connell being named as the Lions' leader."

March 26, 2009

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 03/26/2009

Time the biggest test for Wilkinson's Lions hopes

Jonny Wilkinson’s grim six month fight to make the Lions tour has been hit by renewed concern over the state of his left knee according to Peter Jackson in the Daily Mail.

"The ‘minor setback’ which forced Newcastle to withdraw him from their substitutes at Bath last weekend is now in danger of turning into a major one for both the player and the Lions, despite the delayed announcement of their 35-man squad. Players have until April 12 to book their seats on May’s flight to Johannesburg.

"Wilkinson is rapidly running out of games. After this weekend, Newcastle have only four matches left, five if they win their European Challenge Cup quarter-final at Saracens on the Lions deadline day. The chosen few will be named nine days later at the end of an exhaustive selection process headed by Ian McGeechan."

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 03/26/2009

Lions face their biggest challenge

Lions coach Ian McGeechan feels that this summer's trip to South Africa will be the toughest test the elite tourists have ever faced. He spoke to Mick Cleary in the Daily Telegraph.

"McGeechan will put a lot of emphasis on personal relationships. Players will share rooms, travel as a group, even if not required for midweek matches, and have one common coaching set-up in charge.

"The Lions is such a short, sharp, intense experience that you've all got to be in it together,'' said McGeechan, who insisted on this reversion to old customs when interviewed for the post. The 2005 trip to New Zealand was seen as bloated. McGeechan, though, has adopted some of Sir Clive Woodward's organisational approach, which he said was "superb".

"You had to try out the two-team concept, with different coaches, to see if it worked,'' McGeechan said. "I wanted it more compact. We've got to be able to react to each other as well as to circumstances to have a fighting chance. We're all in this together.""

March 12, 2009

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 03/12/2009

Crafty 'Boks aim to hit Lions from a height

Writing in the Irish Independent, Peter Bills insists that trying to play normal rugby for 80 minutes at that altitude is a killer for visiting sides.

	Will the Lions follow the lead of Stormers' coach Rassie Erasmus when they take on the Boks at altitude? © Getty Images

"For the Stormers' game at altitude in Pretoria last Saturday, Erasmus adopted a fascinating strategy, one the Lions might well consider emulating when they go there in June. Basically, for the first 50 minutes, Erasmus's team refused to play any rugby. They chose some heavyweight, experienced guys up front to win the ball and selected two arch kickers, Willem de Waal at fly-half and Percy Montgomery at full-back. Both kicked the leather off the ball in those first 50 minutes.

The Bulls did exactly the same thing, which led to a contest of aerial ping pong. It was ghastly stuff to watch but, in the Stormers' case, there was a shrewd ulterior motive behind it. Thereafter, from around the 50th minute, the Stormers suddenly started to open up and play rugby. They switched to keeping ball in hand, moved it wide and ran hard. In the end, they fell just four points short in a 14-10 defeat but, given that most critics had expected them to be overwhelmed, it was a moral victory for Erasmus's controversial game-plan.

"...This information should be of crucial interest to the Lions because I understand they will spend most of the week leading up to the Pretoria Test preparing at sea level in Cape Town. They'll only fly up there on the Friday, which is what a lot of teams tend to do these days. But few have tried Erasmus's philosophy and few have got as close to the home team at Loftus Versfeld. It is no coincidence that the Lions have been given an itinerary of two Tests at altitude. In 1997, when they last toured South Africa, two Tests were at sea level, a clear help for the tourists. This time the South Africans want to make it as hard as possible."

March 7, 2009

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 03/07/2009

Return to traditional Lions values can restore the roar

Former Ireland and Lions star Tony Ward hopes that this year's elite tourists can learn from the past - read his thoughts in the Irish Independent.

	Clive Woodward got it wrong as the Lions coach in 2005 according to Tony Ward © Getty Images

"If '97 launched the Lions into the professional age, the '05 tour from hell brought a deluded few back to reality with a bang. For those of us privileged to have worn the Lions colours and to have partaken in the unique touring experience, that debacle saddened us. Few tears were shed at the overall outcome to that tour.

"Clive Woodward the player was an outstanding Lion, but Sir Clive the Coach lost the run of himself, and with it the respect of Lions past and present. I toured with Woody in '80 and he was Jack the Lad; the archetypal rugby tourist. For whatever reason he lost that vital touring perspective in the build-up to and duration of that manic trip to New Zealand. Thankfully it was a line in the sand, with new Lions head coach Ian McGeechan and tour manager Gerald Davies intent on making Lions touring again what it once was. The appointment of the former Lions' legends was as inspired as it was essential."

February 21, 2009

Posted by Huw Baines on 02/21/2009

You need to go out and get absolutely smashed

Mike Catt predicts a Welsh Lions, and a sore head or two, for this summer's tour to South Africa in The Daily Telegraph.

Some of the Welsh lads may have got in a bit of bother last weekend, but once every four years you need to go out and get absolutely smashed. We did it as a group of Lions on the first weekend of the last tour to South Africa and it was the making of us. From then on we were absolutely together. I believe a similar session will be the making of this year's Lions squad.

"As an American Ryder Cup captain once said: "I've got a real good feeling" about this tour. Make no mistake, these will be the Wales Lions and they will have to play like the defending Grand Slam champions if we are to have a chance. Ian McGeechan may nominally be in charge, but he will be more of a manager and a counsellor to the players. Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards will run the show.

"They know the importance of players having down-time as a group. After it got a little out of hand in Cardiff over the weekend they didn't start putting everyone on the naughty step, but had a word and moved on. If only the more recent Lions tours had been so mature."

January 10, 2009

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 01/10/2009

Lions king roars with pride once more

Even on his seventh expedition with the famous touring team, Ian McGeechan’s desire to conquer is as great as it ever was writes Owen Slot in The Times.

"He tells me that when he first became a Lion, in 1974 and he rolled up to a London hotel to find Gareth Edwards and Willie John McBride checking in at reception, he felt “like a boy in a sweetie shop”. The same feelings are generated even now.

"...Even now, even on the eve of his seventh Lions tour, a tour that the head coach says is “the biggest challenge so far for the Lions” - one for which he believes South Africa have rightly been installed as favourites, in which the preparation time has shrunk again and professionalism has made the task even tougher - he still feels that way."

January 4, 2009

Posted by Huw Baines on 01/04/2009

McGeechan's Lions watch hotting up

Eddie Butler comments of the interesting dichotomy facing Ian McGeechan as coach of the Lions and Wasps in The Guardian.

"Back in September, Ian McGeechan and Gerald Davies, coach and manager of this summer's British and Irish Lions touring South Africa, used to discuss the "types of player" and "sorts of person" that they were looking for. From now on, they will be reaching for the pen and rubber, inking in here, erasing there. Types of player and person will be given names.

"The sense of urgency is heightened by McGeechan's own circumstances at Wasps. I haven't met anyone who thinks that his club are shot, that this time there will be no about-turn. But the wise man of northern rugby has little time left to resurrect his club season. And it may have to be on a single front, Europe, so poor has been the first half of their domestic season.

"He was on the receiving end of some good fortune - always handy, however much he would put hard work above luck - when Leinster lost in Castres in round four of the Heineken Cup. Wasps face the Irish province at home and the French club away in Pool 2's remaining fixtures at the end of this month.

"Here are Wasps, perennially successful, full of England international players, and coached by McGeechan and Shaun Edwards, who will join him on the Lions tour, with everything hanging on two games in January. We shall know a lot more about Danny Cipriani, the resurgence of his supposed understudy Dave Walder, the form of several players at the core of Martin Johnson's England side, McGeechan's powers of recovery and Edwards's blood pressure when the final whistle blows at the Stade Pierre Antoine in Castres on 25 January."

December 27, 2008

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 12/27/2008

The year Martin Johnson revealed a weakness

One man bestrode English rugby this year and that man was Martin Johnson according to Paul Ackford in the Daily Telegraph.

"All told, it was quite an achievement because for the first part of 2008, as Brian Ashton was humiliated by a heartless employer, Martin Johnson dominated the rugby pages without uttering a word in public.

"Johnson's role in that sorry saga was blameless. Head-hunted by the RFU to rebuild England's stock after a successful but divisive World Cup, he maintained a dignified silence until the detail was sorted, at which point, on 18 April, he surfaced at Twickenham for his first press conference as England's team manager. For a bloke who had no experience in that role, he was very impressive. He said little of substance that day. There was nothing about the style or composition of his team, no detail on what constituted progress or improvement."

December 23, 2008

Posted by Huw Baines on 12/23/2008

Lions ready to roar in 2009

Stephen Jones gets worked up ahead of 2009's crown jewel, the British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa, in his Rolling Maul blog for The Times.

"Frankly, in Lions year the rest fades into insignificance. The RBS Six Nations will obviously be fantastic but the chief value this year will lay for me in any evidence offered that we have 33 giants to take on and beat the Springboks in their backyard – which was not obvious during the autumn internationals.

"And between the recent launch of the glamorous red tops and the time that the first ball is kicked at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg, in the first match of the tour in late May, there will be endless debate, which is half the fun of the whole thing. By the time Ian McGeechan names his tour party and later, his Test team, both will already have been selected around two million times, by you, me, and everyone; and in every clubhouse, stadium terrace and bar in the land. What could be better?"

December 13, 2008

Posted by Graham Jenkins on 12/13/2008

Lions great Davies like cat that got the cream

Writing in The Scotsman, David Ferguson believes the Lions have got the right man in charge of next summer's tour to South Africa.

"The searing pace and silky deft sidestep might have gone, but the moustache provides a swift reminder of the Gerald Davies held in high esteem still by rugby supporters around the globe.

"When the British and Irish Lions committee went in search of men to restore the battered lustre of the Lions ethos, after a demoralising 2005 tour to New Zealand that provoked arguments over the worth of the side in the modern game, Davies was a popular first starting point."

December 2, 2008

Posted by Huw Baines on 12/02/2008

What chance of a vintage Lions?

Writing in The Independent, Peter Bills worries about the lack of options available to the 2009 Lions coaching staff following the autumn internationals.

"No-one much from Ireland or England has thrust up their hands in this autumn Test series. Likewise Scotland, scrum half Mike Blair excepted. For sure, a few Welshmen have – indeed, you can see the shape of a possible Lions Test team already emerging and Welshmen could well feature prominently.

"Lee Byrne at full-back, Shane Williams on one wing, the shrewd Tom Shanklin perhaps in midfield; maybe Stephen Jones or James Hook at outside half. Up front, Gethin Jenkins could be loose head prop, Ryan Jones, Martyn Williams and Andy Powell possible back row men.

"But with Scotland nowhere and England rebuilding this winter, I fear the Lions selectors are going to be worryingly short of real world class for this tour. You’d envisage Irishmen like Brian O’Driscoll, Paul O’Connell, Geordan Murphy, David Wallace and maybe Jerry Flannery finding a place somewhere. Perhaps, too, Luke Fitzgerald.

"But does this likely Lions Test side equate with 1971 – C.M.H. Gibson, Edwards and John, JPR, Gerald Davies and Duckham – or 1974, when JPR, Edwards, Bennett, McBride, JJ Williams, Cotton, Brown, Slattery, Uttley and Mervyn Davies toured? Not remotely so, in my book.

"It seems that unless something remarkable happens in the Six Nations, the Lions will fly out next May as rank underdogs against world champions South Africa, with all their experience and proven quality."