Jam-packed with controversy, personal insults, old-fashioned biffo and some of the most breathtaking rugby ever played, the 2001 tour of Australia by the British and Irish Lions really did have it all.

Proclaimed as an instant classic, the three Test series has aged even better over the ensuing 24 years since the two opposing sides went at each other in Australian rugby’s golden era.

In beating the Lions in a series for the first - and still only time - the 2001 Wallabies cemented their reputation as one of rugby’s greatest teams, reaching the sport’s holy grail when the code was at its absolute peak and Australia was still buzzing after the Sydney Olympics.

“The truly unique victory for that team, which had never been done, was beating the Lions,” the Wallabies legendary captain John Eales told this masthead.

“We had very specific goals every year but that one was special because it was our sole goal for a few years.”

Playing in front of full stadiums everywhere they went, the Wallabies were already World Cup champions, Tri-Nations champions and Bledisloe Cup holders but beating the combined might of England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland elevated them above all others.

While history shows the Wallabies fought back after being thrashed in the opening Test to easily win the second match in Melbourne then take the spoils with a close-fought victory in the deciding game in Sydney, it was a wild rollercoaster from start to finish that could have gone either way.

The Wallabies went into the first Test in Brisbane as slight favourites but were completely blown off the park, losing 29-13 after the Lions fans flooded the Gabba and turned the contest into a home match for the visitors.

“We ran out on the field to a sea of red jerseys in the grandstands,” Eales said.

“We knew it was going to be busy and big, but that was a bit of a surprise.

“We were a very composed team and a very good and experienced team at that period of time but it did sort of catch us slightly off guard.”

$80,000 GOLD RUSH THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

Under fire, the Australian Rugby Union’s chief executive John O’Neill decided to take matters into his own hands, spending $80,000 on free gold merchandise for all the Aussie fans attending the second Test in Melbourne.

It worked a treat as the crowd found their voice and the Wallabies bounced back to win 35-14 and change the course for the game, even if people didn’t realise there and then.

“We would sell out any stadium in those days in a matter of hours,” O’Neill said.

“We didn’t know at the time that we were going to end up hosting the World Cup in 2003 by ourselves, but I have to admit that a lot of the IRB Rugby World Cup officials who came for the last part of the Lions tour would have thought ‘wow Australia’s going to host a great World Cup’.

“In the end New Zealand shot themselves in the foot and we hosted it by ourselves but a lot of what happened during the course of the Lions tour in 2001 served as a template for 2003.”

Resisting the temptation to change tactics after the first Test defeat, the Wallabies stuck to their original plan and got rewarded with two tries from Joe Roff, including a series-changing intercept off Jonny Wilkinson.

“There was still a sense of calm and confidence. We just needed to do things better,” Roff said.

“We’d come off a super rugby campaign and we’d only been together for a couple of weeks before we played that first Test. So we were rejoining the dots on how we played together while the Lions on the other hand had had a fairly gruelling tour in terms of playing against our Super Rugby teams and bashing each other, which was fantastic.

“By the time the second Test came around they knew they were only 10 days out from going home to the UK after a really solid tour. We were sort of on the rise and I think they were just coming off the top of their game, so to speak, which created that perfect balance.”

MACQUEEN’S BOMBSHELL AND THE INJURY TOLL

Australia’s win came at a heavy price. Star five-eighth Stephen Larkham and lock David Giffin both suffered injuries that ruled them out of the deciding match while the Wallabies head coach Rod Macqueen broke the news to his players in the dressing shed that he was quitting after the series.

“We sort of knew something was on the cards at some stage, but it came as a surprise,” Roff said.

“It was a bit hard at that time to not see that as a distraction because we’re all in the campaign together through to the third Test.”

Meanwhile, the Lions captain Martin Johnson was trying to lift his players for one last push after they’d lost their momentum.

“We’ve got a very battered and bruised squad at the end of a hard tour and a hard season,” he said.

We didn’t get outplayed. We just let ourselves down a little. We just need to raise ourselves for one last massive effort.”

THE INSULTS THAT FIRED UP HARRISON

There was never any love lost between the squads after the Waratahs five-eighth Duncan McRae unleashed a flurry of punches on Ronan O’Gara in an earlier tour match but the team’s mutual dislike for boiled over again when the Lions’ utility back Ausin Healey wrote a column for the Guardian and described the Wallaby debutant Justin Harrison as an ‘ape, a plank and a plod.’

While Healey didn’t play in the match, his comments had a big bearing on the outcome as Harrison famously stole a lineout from the hands of Johnson to avert a late challenge from the Lions as the Wallabies held on to win 29-23.

The Lions were furious with Healey, describing his actions as unacceptable and slapping him with a fine.

“It embarrassed the tour party, the Lions and those who had travelled to Australia to support the tour,” the Lions disciplinary committee said in a statement. “It clearly brought the Lions into disrepute.“

The Lions’ New Zealand coach Graham Henry was also livid, later writing in his biography “Henry’s Pride”, that Healey had let down the whole team.

“It really was an age old story. Betraying trust, and betraying your mates for 30 pieces of silver,” Henry wrote.

HEARTBREAK, APOLOGIES AND THE SEEDS OF REVENGE

The Lions took the series defeat hard with Johnson taking the extraordinary act of apologising to their fans for coming up short.

“There were no excuses for us, they deserved to win it,” Johnson said.

“I could not have asked any more in terms of effort, it was a tremendous series and the players can be proud of themselves but we came up just short.”

Henry also commended the Wallabies for their historic success, but said the Lions had given it their best shot.

“Congratulations to Australia, they were more consistent under pressure,” Henry said.

“It has been an horrendous tour in many respects but I wouldn’t have done anything differently.

“The players have shown a lot of guts and character and I am proud of what they have achieved.”

For the Wallabies, the sense of accomplishment from what they managed in 2001 continues to grow to this day.

“It’s a rare opportunity. People can play 10 year careers and not get the chance to play the Lions,” Eales said.

“For me, I was desperate to be involved in that thing but getting to the end of it, it was like relief but also made even more special because it was the end of Rod McQueen’s coaching career.

“For him to be able to finish with the Wallabies as the most successful Wallabies coach of all time was a great gift.”

Roff had a beer with Johnson after the series finale and could experience first hand his devastation.

But Roff said he also saw Johnson’s determination to avenge that loss, which he did when he returned to Australia in 2003 and led England to victory in the World Cup final over the Wallabies.

“It was a hell of a series and I was lucky to be part of it,” Roff said.

“I could see he was really feeling the loss but I could also see the steel in him that I think drove this incredible motivation for all that he achieved two years later.”

Eales also came away from the series with renewed respect for the Lions and their traditions and their crestfallen leader, who he had first played against when they were just 21 but is now linked with forever.

“He was a guy that teams he played in were better teams because of him, there’s no question about that,” Eales said.

“He was hard. He was very disciplined in what he did. He did the basics well, he was a man that you could tell people loved playing with.

“What he achieved as a captain was wonderful because that English team from 1999 to 2003 were the best team in the world consistently through that period of time.

“After he won the toss at the Gabba he said ‘we’ll bat’. He was a good bloke with a good sense of humour.

“One of the wonderful things that rugby is renowned for is that when your playing time ends, the respect goes on because of the global culture of the game. It’s a gift that keeps giving.”