Did you hear the one about the Englishman, the Irishman, the Scotsman, and the Welshman? Well actually it was about 20000 of them! Just landed in Durban and can’t believe how proud I feel to be part of this red army.
As we weave our way through the next few weeks I will attempt to bring you the highs and lows of life on tour with strangers who have a collective purpose, not just mass beer consumption, but a collective pride in the shirt. In fact we are the pride of the pride I guess being Lions fans. I’ll try to incorporate sound-bites and ‘overheard’ conversations, the first of which just came from the back of our bus in a broad valleys accent… "well you know if things don’t go too well tomorrow we can’t let Gethin shoulder the blame for those other two!"….and so the banter begins!
I’ve never been a fan of the phrase ‘quietly confident’, but the conversations I have had with Lions Fans all lead to an agreement on the starting XV, and a cast iron understanding that to catch the Boks cold in the First Test would give us the ‘luck’ that you need, along with the skills the Lions undoubtedly have to make this a historic tour.
Being totally impartial (yeah right!), I have also had the pleasure of Bok banter, all of which has had a nervous undertone to it.
So this is the one, the game we have waited 12 years for, and you know if this isn’t the one, then let’s make sure the next one is!
Here it is. The gathering of the clans. Calling all you Picts, Celts and Anglo Saxons the battle is upon us. Rally to the strumming of the harp the beating of the tam, the demonic wail of the Pipes and the waving of the handkerchief (Yes I’m English, and apart from the Ghetto Blaster I’m struggling to identify our National instrument – answers on a card to…), and let’s party hard on Durban Beach on the eve of battle. See you there, I’ll be wearing red!
Did I tell you the one about the Englishman the Irishman the Scotsman and the Welshman…..
PS: Just bumped into Tim Stimpson in the lift at the hotel who within 30 seconds admitted to beer avoidance on the flight over and didn’t know which floor his room was on….either a wise man who senses a room raid when he see’s one, or god help him finding his room if he doesn’t avoid the beer!
