Time was when Australia was a Lions stop-over en route to New Zealand. Now, in advance of what is only the third full tour of Australia, the 2013 Lions kick off their tour amid the spectacular skyscrapers of bustling Hong Kong in the unlikely surrounds of So Kon Po Stadium in burning heat and humidity. To describe this as a banana skin hardly seems apt, not least as the banana skin would melt in no time.
Nevertheless, to emerge from this commercially driven fixture unscathed prior to tomorrow’s overnight flight to Perth would constitute a huge relief for all involved, as the customary risks to limb and certainly dehydration and exhaustion levels will surely be heightened.
While the rains have held off, the forecast, praise be, is for temperatures to be even warmer today, up to 36 degrees, and with the customary 90 per cent humidity. Hence, in compliance with IRB heat regulations, there will be four designated one-minute water breaks that occur at the closest point of stoppage to the 15-minute mark and the 30-minute mark of each half of the game. Even though darkness will descend at around 6.30pm, the temperatures will not drop and, if anything, the humidity will then rise.
No sell-out
Nor will today's game be anything like the hoped for sell-out. About 26,000 will pay at least HK$750 (€75) to attend the Hong Kong Stadium, also called So Kon Po Stadium, which has a capacity of 40,000. Furthermore, concerns about how much wear and tear the pitch can take compelled both sides to forsake their captain's runs there yesterday.
As Jamie Roberts recalled yesterday, the Lions toiled in their opening match four years ago when struggling at altitude. "I always remember that game, first up in 2009 against the Royal XV in Rustenburg, where we almost lost. We came through in the 75th minute I think when Lee Byrne rescued us with a little chip and chase. A lot of us were maybe forcing things, playing not as individuals but doing things that we'd usually do with our countries or our clubs. However we're in Lions shirts here and we have to put into practise tomorrow night what we've been doing in training. And make sure everyone, as a back line, as a forward pack and as a team, work well. You put your case forward as a back line rather than as an individual."
More vivid still is the Test series defeat, clinched by the 28-25 second Test defeat in Loftus Versfeld. “We came so close in 2009. The changing room after the second Test was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. And four years later I’ve never experienced anything like it. That feeling of losing a game of such huge significance. We have a chance to put it right this tour and all the boys are desperate to recreate what the Lions did in ’97.”
Asked how often he thinks about that defeat, Roberts smiled and admitted: "Every week I think. It burns in the back of my mind until the next tour, which is obviously now. I always remember that season of 2008/'09 was a season of what-ifs," he added, recalling losing a Heineken Cup semi-final with the Cardiff Blues to Leicester in a penalty shoot-out, and Stephen Jones's missed penalty for Ireland to clinch the Grand Slam. "Then the 2009 Lions tour, second Test at Loftus. That was just the nail in the coffin to be honest."
Drinks breaks
Having recently completed his medical degree, Roberts also agreed with the drinks breaks. Of course, conditions will be the same today for the Barbarians. In a Sky Sports interview with Stuart Barnes, their captain Sergio Parisse spoke passionately of the rare opportunity this fixture affords him and his players. But he also revealed that scrums were particularly savage (Adam Jones has jokingly wondered if he and his opposing compatriot Paul James might come to an accord) .
Nor might the Baa-baas’ preparations have been quite as intense. For all the promises of a break in Barbarians tradition, namely a self-imposed alcohol ban for the week as a response to their limp defeat to England last week, sighings of their players late at night in less than sober condition have dispelled this theory.
About the most significant aspect, however, of the Baa-baas' pallid performance in Twickenham last Sunday was the difference and improved control which Dimitri Yacvhili and Nick Evans brought from the bench in the final quarter, and with 11 changes they do look altogether stronger. By rights, having a crack off the Lions should inspire them, given the Lions and the Barbarians have only faced each other once before, the Lions winning 23-14 victory in 1977 in a game to mark the Silver Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II.
However, the burning desire within this latest pride of Lions to make this a launching pad for the ensuing trek to Oz a statement of intent ought to be sharper.
In a sense, the Lions probably can’t win. If they are extended by their comparatively patchwork, invitational opponents the Lions are sure to feel the heat and won’t have achieved the kind of lift-off they are looking for, and yet the more handsome the winning margin, the more it will be dismissed as an irrelevance prior to the main event.
Furthermore, with nine Welshman in the starting line-up there ought to be a greater familiarity within Lions’ ranks than was the case four years ago, and if reports of their physical well-being and sharpness in training are in any way accurate, they should ultimately pull away.
