Irish stars pride of the Lions

THE dust has hardly settled on the 2009 British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa, but already plans are being drawn up for Australia 2013.

Following Clive Woodward’s embarrassing 2005 show, there were real fears for the future of the Lions brand. Ian McGeechan and Gerald Davies deserve huge credit for getting this concept back on track.

In front of 40,000 British and Irish supporters through a 10-match campaign, the Lions emerged with seven wins, a draw and two defeats. Even though they lost the Test series, they lost with dignity and could quire easily have reversed the 2-1 loss.