Lions enter Aussie battlefield to take a shot at immortality

AS the Lions prepare for battle with the Wallabies in tonight's First Test, these words resonate with the touring side: "This is your shot at forever."

Lions fans

IN LIONS folklore occasionally a phrase is uttered that, in its simplicity, encapsulates what a tour means and how success can change lives. It is powerful, inspiring and emotive.

Before the opening international in 1997, Jim Telfer talked about the game being "your Everest, boys". Here in Australia, Irish player Paul O'Connell's words resonate. "This is your shot at forever," he said.

That is the significance of the Lions. Winning is the holy grail, made more valuable by its very scarcity and by the scale of the challenge that is like nothing else in sport. In the post-war era, there have been 17 tours. Only four have been successful. The dates are rattled off like battle honours: 1971 New Zealand, 1974 South Africa, 1989 Australia and 1997 against the Springboks.

Since then there has been a blank. Critics who believe it is an outmoded concept that clutters up the the rugby calendar are circling. Already there have been murmurs about the viability of future tours, the need for greater distribution of wealth, the schedule, the size of squads. Another defeat will play into the doom-mongers' hands. So for the players the pressure is enormous: they are, in a way, playing to secure the future of the Lions.

One only need to ask Brian O'Driscoll what victory would mean. "I'm not going to be involved in any more World Cups," he said yesterday. "For me the only other attainable thing that I'm going to be able to achieve in my career that I haven't previously won is winning a Lions Test series. I dearly want to be part of that for my own sake but also for the Lions' sake. I think we need to win one of these series soon and let's hope it starts tomorrow."

The Lions will pit their forward strength, a rock-solid set-piece, their mauling and kicking game against the potentially greater inventiveness of Australia. It will be a meeting, as Andy Farrell stated yesterday, of two world-class sides in which "performance levels rise another 10-15 per cent".

"The more experience you have in your side the better," Farrell, the assistant coach, said. "It was great looking around the team room this morning and seeing who is going into battle with you. Everyone knows what wins big games - it's physicality, it's energy, it's wanting to get on top of your opposition - and this won't be any different.

"We aren't stupid. There is always going to be a plan there and we have to get our own house in order. Over the past six weeks we have done a lot of learning. There has been a progression, but we haven't wanted to show everything first-up. There are three Tests to come."

The teams come together from contrasting starting points. The touring team have been hardened by games as well as scarred by injuries, mainly to their backs. Australia have not escaped, though, with half of what would be their first-choice pack missing. The Wallabies have been cocooned in camp. Their squad has barely played Super Rugby over the past month and their most recent international was on December 1, when they beat Wales in Cardiff.

Australia have started slowly in the past two years, losing to Samoa in 2011 and going down to Scotland in the rain at Newcastle last year. On each occasion they responded with a victory, over South Africa and Wales respectively. The Wales team contained seven of today's eight starters.

That is why so much emphasis is being placed on the outcome of the first international. Win and momentum starts to build and can become unstoppable. The Lions want to catch Australia cold. Both teams, though, will be immeasurably better in Melbourne. Australia will have played, the Lions will have Tommy Bowe, Manu Tuilagi and perhaps even Jamie Roberts back to bolster Warren Gatland's power-based game.

None of the Australia side, who include three new caps and a rookie fly half in James O'Connor, will have experienced anything like a game against the Lions. Twelve years ago they were caught out by the touring team - who, backed by a sea of red that turned the Gabba in Brisbane into a Lions home fixture - and lost the match. It is why advertising campaigns running here at the moment are labelled: "Get Rid of Red." One shows a vase of red roses being smashed to smithereens.

Robbie Deans, whose own future as Australia head coach depends upon the outcome of the series, has sought to educate his players about what to expect. "We have tapped into some of the footage from the past, just to gain an insight because it only happens once every 12 years so none of these blokes have experienced it," he said.

"Some of them were young men when it last happened, so they didn't witness it. We've done what we can to ensure that we're well informed. The occasion is not only unique in rugby, it's unique in world sport.

"We'll hit the ground running. We know what's coming. It's going to be an epic occasion. For those of us lucky enough to witness it in 2001, it was huge. It will be a battle of wills."

The will, though, of the Lions to achieve immortality should prove too strong and drive them to a victory by eight points, propelled by the unerring accuracy of Leigh Halfpenny, a kicker of the quality that Australia simply do not possess.