All Fun and games...

[sarah_lennon]

Lions' happy campers avoid professional tourist trap

Every tour, in the end, is judged by the results on the field. There is no such thing as a happy trip when you lose a series 3–0, and vice versa. Or is there? This particular Lions expedition may just prove an exception to the rule even if South Africa prove too strong. Such is the positive buzz within the Lions camp it might even tempt all international sides to re-evaluate what they are doing.

Ian McGeechan and Gerald Davies certainly deserve credit before a ball is kicked against the Springboks. When you see the sparkle in the eyes of, say, Jamie Heaslip and Alun Wyn Jones you just know they are enjoying themselves. And why not? Training sessions last anywhere between 45 and 70 minutes, never longer.

Short, sharp, intense is the mantra, with the rest of the day dedicated to recovery, detailed planning and relaxation. Heaslip has already been swimming with sharks, visited Ollie Le Roux's farm and been appointed as the man in charge of organising the squad's cinema trips.

Jones, who will sit his final law exams in criminal evidence and employment in August, has been the judge at the players' court. The black cap, by the sound of it, has been much in evidence. A fine of 300 rand (about £23) is the going rate for mobile telephones which ring during meetings and nominated players are responsible for telling a joke of the day.

All proceeds will go to charity and early business has been brisk. If it all sounds like innocent, schoolboy fun, that's hardly the worst crime in the world when you're miles from home and seeking to create a band-of-brothers atmosphere.

The contrast with the increasing number of grim, no fun, in-and-out, business trip-style tours of recent years is stark and instructive. Boredom has yet to rear its ugly head, mostly because there are two games a week within a relatively fast-moving travel schedule, rather than the squad sitting in the same base for days with too much time to think.

The midweek games, while slightly devalued by the absence of virtually every Springbok squad member, are not seen as impediments to weekend preparation but as part of the whole ever-changing picture.

Far from resulting in a shedload of injured players queueing up for treatment, strangely, the opposite has been true. Before this week's Sharks fixture, only Martyn Williams was unavailable for selection with a relatively minor shoulder bang. Had it been a Test, according to the tour doctor, James Robson, the Welsh flanker could have been involved. It feels less like good luck than good management of a group of happy, committed players.

The current state of affairs is all the more admirable because it has developed from a standing start. The Englishman Tom Croft and Ireland's Donncha O'Callaghan, for example, have been sharing a room this week at the squad's beachside hotel in Umhlanga. The pair would barely have met before but suddenly, out of necessity, there can be no mooching in single rooms, no gloomy introspection.

Of course there will be some missing home, their families or their best form but that is when character emerges in terms of selfless dedication to the greater good. "It's not a dictatorship; everyone has an equal say," explained Heaslip this week. "There's no cloak-and-dagger stuff, it's all for the good of the squad. I think it's bringing the best out of everyone."

The same situation appears true for the management who are conspicuously enjoying each other's company. The Wasps and Wales connections are already proven and the support staff hand-picked for their quiet expertise and good humour.

All seem perfectly content to have the travelling media staying in the same hotels and, as a result, there is less paranoia and more openness on all sides and the collective mood is the better for it as the tour enters its definitive stage.

"We know it's a challenge, I'm not saying it's not," stressed McGeechan the other day. The 2009 Lions, however, have already proved a welcome throwback to a less suspicious age. The feelgood factor may be insufficient in isolation to upset the Boks but it has given the image of professional-era touring a timely shot in the arm

[ronk]

They're really going overboard with it.

Clever strategy. Gives the journalists something to write about and it's a real feel good story that harkens back to the good ol' days™

By casting it as very much like a junior tour off the training field and focusing on bonding it has a real appeal to ex-players (and players) who remember tours fondly. Very nostalgic and probably necessary to avoid bringing up similarities with 2005.

It's still early but I think one of the first things to look at for 2013 is doing something about the weakened opposition. Fans just don't seem excited enough about the tour.