Talking over, it’s time to roar

At last the hype is over and the British and Irish Lions are back in business.

For Australia, so the marketing spiel goes, it has been a Test series 12 years in the making, while those of us from this part of the world have suffered the pain of three successive series defeats, starting with the Wallabies’ 2-1 triumph here in 2001.

Today, Warren Gatland’s 2013 Lions intend to start putting things right and will go into this opening Test match at Suncorp Stadium (11am Irish time) bristling with confidence that they have the right stuff to emulate their predecessors of South Africa 1997.