It can be done...

“They don’t respect you. They don’t rate you. The only way to be rated is to stick one on them, to get right up in their faces and turn them back, knock them back. Outdo what they do. Outjump them, outscrum them, outruck them, outdrive them, outtackle them, until they’re fucking sick of you.”

Jim Telfer

If the Lions are able to turn Telfer’s words into actions, only then will they stand a chance against the Springboks tomorrow.

The 2009 Lions have at times danced and at times stumbled past the provincial opposition, overcoming the difficulties of the touring format with the modest dignity of a six-match unbeaten streak, but it is the Test series that decides whether a tour will be inked into or erased from our knowingly-biased collective memory.

The flaccid record of recent years, when compared with the relative success of the individual home nations internationally, proves that the task awaiting any Lions team is a particularly daunting and difficult one. We harp on about ‘The Invincibles’ of 1974 and the desperate victory of 1997 precisely because their feats are so rare – we care more about the Lions because we are expected to lose.

To defeat any of the Tri-Nations teams (let alone the current World Champions) on their home turf, with a squad drawn from four countries which has spent little over three weeks playing together, is a minor miracle. True, the Lions can pick the best players from those four countries, but international rugby teams hit their peaks and troughs in different cycles, and the Lions rarely gain a significant advantage over their hosts in this regard. In fact, it is the South Africans who are riding the crest of a wave at the moment, with Bryan Habana claiming that they are an even stronger outfit than when they won the World Cup two years ago.

The Lions go into the first Test tomorrow, like so many of their predecessors, as rank outsiders - Bakkies Botha is even reported to have laughed at the idea of Paul O’Connell and Alun Wyn Jones competing with him and his second row partner Victor Matfield on the field. Much has been made of the lack of size in the Lions squad but, as the ’97 Lions proved by embodying the energy in Telfer’s words, victory can come by outperforming the opposition, not outmuscling them.

"I didn't look at the size and the weight of the players I picked, I just went for the best players I had seen in the Six Nations," McGeechan said of his touring squad at the end of yesterday’s press conference. "Some happen to be bigger than others, but it wasn't a criteria. I just wanted good rugby players."

The Lions will need those players to demonstrate the athleticism that has repeatedly been mentioned as the alternative to size; we must not forget that the South African side is also one of the most athletic teams around, with Pierre Spies showing his mind-boggling pace and Heinrich Brussow appearing to steal or slow the ball at every consecutive ruck for a full 80 minutes for the Cheetahs. Croft, Wallace and Heaslip are no slouches, but do they have what it takes to outperform the South African back row consistently?

In all their matches so far, excluding the 74-10 victory over the Golden Lions, the Lions have not shown the same aggressive enthusiasm as the opposition. I’m not advocating the recklessness that the Southern Kings showed on Tuesday, nor suggesting that the Lions should lose their cool, but merely that they should mark their territory more forcefully – it would be nice to a see someone in a red shirt doing the clattering for a change, tackling and crashing into the defense à la Scott Gibbs. You can have no doubt that the Springboks will climb into the Lions from the first whistle tomorrow, and the Lions must give as good as they get and more.

We all seem more confident about our back line, with at least two players who could be deemed the best in the world in their positions: Lee Byrne and Brian O’Driscoll. It is true, Sir BOD’s star is on the wane, but who better to stir the blood of those younger Lions around him than arguably the finest centre of all time? Some of those younger players have found fantastic form on this tour, with the likes of Tommy Bowe and Jamie Roberts consistently demonstrating their talents – if they are able to match tomorrow’s challenge with the performance it merits, Roberts’s forward momentum and Bowe’s finishing will give the Lions a fighting chance.

The Springbok back division is, of course, also very strong. Fourie du Preez is often advertised as the best scrum half in world rugby, a fantastic runner with sharp passing and kicking games to boot. Ruan Pienaar proved himself equally adept in the fly-half position during last year’s autumn internationals, and Jean de Villiers has the size, handling ability and pace to offer a multitude of options from inside centre. Bryan Habana burst onto the scene with bestial speed a few years back, and will certainly still be a threat if the Lions allow him too many liberties, while Francois Steyn has shown that weak clearance kicking (as the Lions have been prone to do) can and will be punished with the kind of metronomic drop goals that seem to have become a requirement of all South African full-backs.

With very few people predicting a victory tomorrow or in the series, the Lions will be thinking as all underdogs do, turning negative expectation into energy, energy into an advantage over an enemy with superior size or skill. Martin Johnson, mixing his myths and metaphors slightly, recently explained that he relished being written off when playing as a Lion: “The good thing about ’97 was that no-one really gave us a prayer. It felt like a minnow against a Goliath, and that is a great place to be.”

So, what kind of match can we expect tomorrow? The Battle of the Breakdown looks set to be the clinching skirmish of tomorrow’s war. The Lions have so far conceded 52 penalties at the tackle area in their 6 matches, a worrying figure that must be rectified against some of the world’s best loose forwards. Lineouts and scrums are in the balance, both sides with their advantages and weaknesses – the Lions need a solid platform to release the attacking potential of their backs, who will fancy their chances with quick, clean ball. In defence, the Lions must show an aggression that has been lacking so far, and a willingness to play dirty on the floor if that is the order of the day. In short, they must outplay the Springboks in all areas of the field.

It can be done.

“They don’t think fuck all of us. Nothing. We’re just here to make up the fucking numbers. No one’s going to do it for you. You have to find your own solace – your own drive, your ambition, your own inner strength, because the moment’s arrived for the greatest game of your fucking life”.