Ronan O'Gara: Armchair generals - how Gibson-Park and Russell put Lions in box seat

Wherever and whenever it’s been doable this past week or so, I’ve squeezed in chats with interesting rugby folk while south of the equator.

NOTHING BY HALF: Lions 9 and 10, Jamison Gibson-Park and Finn Russell, celebrate after the victory over the Queensland Reds in Brisbane. Pic: Dan Sheridan, Inpho

The dateline above isn’t strictly accurate. Currently, I am somewhere over the Indian Ocean, routing from Melbourne to Dubai and onto Paris before returning to Ile de Ré outside La Rochelle. To some heat.

In Canberra, it was raining and five degrees, dark at shortly after 4pm. Grim.