Lions’ captain, Peter O’Mahony: One in a hundred

THE ancient Greeks had an appreciation, maybe sharper than ours, of how raw life could be. 

One of their historians — Heraclitus — offered this assessment of battle: “Out of every 100 men, 10 shouldn’t even be there, 80 are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle.

Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.” Though it is perverse to compare war and sport, we can recognise qualities essential in both.