Sean Fitzpatrick: Lions tour shows way to keep rugby interest high

As we move further into yet more short-term June tests - this time against France and Italy - so it is possible to look at the Lions tour of South Africa and to wish that world rugby still worked this way.

The Lions have already generated lots of excitement, genuine rugby passion, debate about selection, who is stepping up and who isn't, and it's great to see.

They have produced an interesting shift in the UK from the separate national interest of the Six Nations to a united British and Irish partisanship.

Touring is a great adventure and, just as coach Ian McGeechan and the management team on the Lions tour seem to understand the secrets of making it work, the IRB needs to be clear on how to make all international tours work for the wider game. The value that touring gives is not just to the countries involved but also to the game itself.

As it stands at the moment, it looks like short B team tours in the summer months will be the order of the day. These tours will pay dividends to emerging players and be a great adventure, both for those on tour and for those welcoming them to their stadiums. I am also convinced that there is much more pleasure in taking a full strength national side on tour and that the perception of the game is not enhanced when tours become second-class events.

The viewing public in New Zealand are, I think, weary of weakened teams visiting our country in short spurts and of test matches of under-powered status; games which bear little significance and which stay only briefly in the memory.

World rugby has to fix this problem and they show few signs of doing so in spite of constant discussion and warnings.

It doesn't work for the visiting teams either - and I noted Italy coach Nick Mallett's pertinent comments about the impossible schedule they have been handed.

Getting back to the Lions, I have been struck by how the two tours that are being referenced are the 1974 Lions and the 1997 tour. There has been little or nothing about the two more recent Lions tours! I wonder why...?

However, the '74 Lions reached mythical status and epitomised the spirit of the Lions - and more than that; the spirit of rugby. They were a group of players who together stood up to intense battering and, with a combination of collective will, aggression and skill, delivered the result.

For me, the 1971 and 1974 Lions teams made me a fan forever. Names like J.P.R Williams, Gerald Davies, David Duckham, Mike Gibson, Barry John, Gareth Edwards (a particular hero of mine...), Gordon Brown and the coach, the great Carwyn James.

The 1997 tour was McGeechan's last time in charge and was perhaps the first time that a video (Living with the Lions) allowed every club player and spectator at home a glimpse into the camaraderie, friendship and intense focus that showed what being on tour is all about.

It was great viewing, whether it was Martin Johnson's whitewash speech going into the final week, or seeing the players laugh and mess about, and then compete and live and die together on the pitch.

Truth to tell, you have to wonder whether even McGeechan can put a scratch team together in two months that can beat the world champions on home soil. For now, however, the process of getting there is enough of a spectacle.

It is energising and exciting.

This Lions tour certainly reminds us that taking the best players you've got out on the road and pitching them against all-comers is thrilling to watch and creates an energy and a buzz around the game that we should all enjoy and take note of.