By Peter Bills
The extent of the task facing the British & Irish Lions in South Africa in just five months time was underlined by some frank words from the man who assisted Jake White at the last World Cup.
Australian Eddie Jones laid the reality on the table with an assessment which cut out so much of the hype that has surrounded preparations for this tour. "In my view," said Jones with typical Australian candour, "it will be very difficult for the Lions. They have to build a complete side in a matter of a few weeks and get them gelling. That is never easy."
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But if that sounded pretty sobering, Jones' stark opinion on the number of world class players who will be available to the 2009 Lions, was equally revealing. "The Lions will really have only three world class players," he said. "Brian O'Driscoll, Paul O'Connell and Shane Williams would perhaps get into a World XV. But I can't see any others."
The rest, he suggested with faint praise, represented a bunch of promising, OK sort of international players who still had a lot to prove at the highest level. Their best probably lay some distance ahead in the future, he intoned.
All of this might seem excessively gloomy but it is the harsh, brutal truth. Unless one of the Four Home Unions enjoys a spectacular Six Nations Championship starting next month in the northern hemisphere in which several players make such startling progress they look world beaters, the Lions will travel largely on a wing and a prayer.
It was very different when the Lions last came to this country. Then, in 1997, players like Martin Johnson, Jeremy Guscott, Scott Gibbs, Keith Wood, Ieuan Evans and Lawrence Dallaglio were all respected across the rugby playing world. They formed a hard core of real quality with which Ian McGeechan as coach could mould a successful side.
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