Let us begin with a central proposition with which you may or may not agree – the British and Irish Lions is not a finishing school. Unlike club and country tours, the Lions is a place where the best talent from four unions combine and hope to become better than the sum of their parts.
The delicious prospect with the Lions is that players who we see year in, year out can unite in combinations we have always wondered about, and we see if they generate the results hoped for. What fans need to remember is that there are plenty of examples of players who had one decent Six Nations tournament in a Lions year, got selected and then failed to deliver.