Dallaglio must set the tone for Lions to deliver

THEY say paper never refused ink. That said, the amount of column inches that have been dedicated to the Lions tour even before a ball has been kicked on New Zealand soil is incredible.

The phenomenon that has become the Lions on tour is now in full swing.

Nowhere was this more evident than in Cardiff last week for the warm-up test against Argentina. The city was awash with Lions merchandise. In 1997, kit manufacturers Adidas badly miscalculated the demand for replica jerseys, which resulted in a universal scarcity when the test series commenced against South Africa.