O'Connell looks to continue pride of Lions

Paul O’Connell has watched the unmissable 1997 ’Living With Lions’ video many times.

And the 2009 British and Irish Lions captain is now on a mission to see his tourists repeat those heroic achievements.

The Lions were written off when they visited South Africa 12 years ago, but victories over the Springboks in Cape Town and Durban secured a stunning Test series triumph.

South Africa will go into battle with the Lions next month as reigning world champions – the same position they held in 1997 – which confirms a huge degree of difficulty facing O’Connell and company.

And the Irish second-row giant is under no illusions about the task ahead.

“You know you are part of a marvellous tradition, but it is important to focus on the here and now,” he said.

“When your tour is done, you hope you have filled the Lions jersey, done it justice and gone the whole mile for it.

“I played in South Africa for Irish Colleges in 1999, and I will never forget how big their players were, how fast and how skilful.

“Nothing had changed by the time I returned with Ireland five years later. They have a fiery passion about their rugby.

“We’ve arrived as massive underdogs – we know it, they know it.

“You play every game away, you are always in a hostile environment and you are charged with creating a (Lions) team out of players from varied cultures and playing styles.

“But once you take that on board, you know the Lions is the highest challenge.

“I’ve won the Heineken Cup with Munster, and with Ireland we’ve ended a 61-year wait for a Grand Slam.

“You celebrate, you cut loose for a bit, then you ask yourself: ’That was great, but what’s next up the ladder? What’s the next challenge up there?’ The answer for everyone here is being here.”

The Lions launch their 10-match tour against a Royal XV in Rustenburg on Saturday, with head coach Ian McGeechan due to name his starting line-up tomorrow morning.

“I think we are a lot further forward than we expected to be after the first week,” said Wales boss Warren Gatland, one of McGeechan’s Lions assistants.

“We have been very pleased. The guys have picked up the calls really quickly, and they can’t wait for Saturday to get the first game under their belt and hopefully get the tour off with a win.

“One of the good things is how open the players have been.

“If we can share ideas and share some information, I think it is going to help club rugby in the northern hemisphere, and international rugby as well.

“I think that’s the way forward. Too often in the past we’ve been so closed and didn’t share enough, so that has been the positive about the last 10 days.

“I am talking generally. When I was coaching Wasps it was about what Wasps did - we didn’t share a lot of information.

“The only way to get better is to challenge yourself by sharing ideas and information and moving the game forward.”