Peter Bills: A series lost, a tradition reinvigorated

The 2009 Lions left South Africa last night, the test series lost and yet, curiously, their concept reinvigorated.

Partly due to South Africa's poor, dreadfully uneven performances, the Lions escaped the 3-0 whitewash that an efficient, properly structured Springbok side would inevitably have inflicted. In the end, the Lions left bemoaning the fact that, but for a mere handful of points, a 2-1 series defeat could easily have been a win.

There is no greater indictment of these misfiring Springboks. South African rugby has declined since the peak of the 2007 World Cup triumph.

Yet even more importantly, in the course of just six weeks Lions coach Ian McGeechan and his colleagues repaired a great deal of the damage done to the Lions ethos by Clive Woodward's mad japes in 2005 in New Zealand. (Incidentally, imagine a Lions side coached by Woodward against a Springbok side coached by Peter de Villiers. Endless material for the men in white coats.)

But significant factors still imperil the Lions. Jeremy Guscott said last week: "If the countries hosting the Lions do not give them proper respect by fielding full-strength sides against them in the midweek games, then they place in peril the whole Lions idea."

Other elements have to change, too, for us to say with confidence that the 2009 Lions' greatest achievement will be seen as having restored the credibility of the brand. Not, mark you, the financial success of the brand; that is assured as long as tens of thousands of Brits and not a few Irishmen wish to splash their hard-earned cash on the mother-of-all drinking sessions in the Southern Hemisphere for a few weeks every four years.

In Cape Town one night, one travelling Lions supporter splashed 38,000 rand ($7560) on a single bottle of French brandy. The bar manager's smile was still as wide as the Vaal River the next evening.

The onus here lies on the hosting unions. If Australia in four years time takes a similarly mercenary view of the tour as the South African Rugby Union did of this one, then the future growth of the game will be actually stunted by the presence of the Lions.

I lost count of the number of people in Durban and Cape Town who told me that, lifelong rugby fans notwithstanding, they flatly refused to be fleeced by a greedy SARU charging European ticket prices in the Southern Hemisphere. So fathers refused to take kids to see the famous Lions. SARU chiefs plus the Lions' top brass (if, as is alleged, they were in on the deal) should be ashamed of themselves.

If the Lions concept is now little more than a cash bonanza for Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, let's finish it here and now. I'd rather just have the memories than be confronted with that sordid sight every four years.

But the Lions themselves need to learn lessons, too. They didn't get out enough to see a wonderful country with all its fantastic people, beautiful scenery and enchanting sights. For that, you have to look at the management and their obsession with training. They should have insisted the players went on more organised trips, met more strangers. A diet of non-stop training will turn potentially bright young minds into robots. That speaks ill of the great traditions of this game.

Other things need tweaking. Ten matches is too short, although the Lions suffered self-inflicted wounds when McGeechan refused to give his first test side a run-out the previous weekend. That was a crass mistake.

The tourists need at least one more warm-up match and probably a further game, making it a 12-match tour. If, that is, they are to be confronted by proper teams, not "B" sides. If it's a B-side tour, they should just fly in for the tests and straight out afterwards. Depressing yes, but inevitable. No one wants to see a series of six or seven irrelevant mismatches.

As ever, you thank the host country for the memories. My favourite? Playing touch rugby with a group of local kids on a rough, scrubby field in the heart of Johannesburg's tough Alexandra township.

On that occasion, five Lions did turn up. I'd suggest they shared my view that to see the smiles on the faces of children with so little was simply priceless. That is, and always was, one of the real meanings of Lions tours.

Peter Bills is a rugby writer for Independent News & Media.