Wynne Gray: Time already against Lions

Playing first-five Owen Farrell in a different position may accrue greater team rewards. Photo / Photosport

Images have depicted the Lions as everything from the new world conquerors to road kill and while that verdict will take time to unfold, we know their supporters will be world-class.

They've got a ridiculous thirst for consuming all New Zealand has to offer and championing their side from Whangarei tomorrow and all points beyond to emulate the deeds of their 1971 predecessors.

Memories supplemented by footage of that tour confirm how much rugby has changed, mainly for the better, since John Dawes and his amateur teammates claimed their historic series win. Rugby is now in its third decade of professionalism with the Lions' visit in 2005, their sole and sorry imprint in that era.

That expedition tarnished the Lions on many levels and they were wiped in the test series. There are many memories but few carry the respect from previous visits and New Zealand rugby carried that snarling chill for some time. There has been a thaw and reconnection as the Lions and coach Warren Gatland have rejigged their campaigns.

This visit should also recalibrate a creeping indifference about New Zealand's national sport with tentacles connected to the Super Rugby shambles, saturation levels and rival entertainment choices.

For months, Gatland and his sidekicks will have trimmed their ideas about how to get the best out of their playing group to confront the All Blacks while also interacting with their host audiences.

The Lions know how they want to play in New Zealand and they've had a couple of camps to lay down those concepts and now it's a case of finding the right players to fit into that jigsaw. Losing Billy Vunipola to injury is a significant blow but Toby Faletau and others are talented options and selection is where the Lions' nerve will be tested.

They will have ideas about players who should be concrete test choices -George North, Owen Farrell, Sam Warburton, Maro Itoje, Tadhg Furlong - but they have to be confirmed. National partnerships such as Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton should be unpicked and tried with new links while using Farrell and Itoje in different positions may accrue greater team rewards.

The enemy is time. Work on the training track is the plinth for any success but match-play is the platform where production and decisions under pressure are the best gauge of any player's calibre.

Six games before the first test at Eden Park is not a stack of chances to juggle ideas, especially if conditions and inevitable injury toll bite into the planning so the Lions have to be creative and inventive about their practices and keeping their squad on a selection edge.

They have a high-quality professional squad who will rapidly absorb a team approach and should deliver sustained impact from their forwards, a tight team defensive pattern, kick goals and have the necessary sting with their backline attack. These Lions have the motivation of unseating the No1 side in the world.

The All Blacks have injury issues to key players, a test with Samoa to survive and national pressure surging towards the opening June 24 test at Eden Park. Success at the America's Cup or the Champions Trophy will intensify the country's expectation.