RUGBY UNION: Will Greenwood exclusive: British & Irish Lions tours will always be relevant

Do you think the Lions is still relevant and merits a place in the rugby calendar?

The fact that we have won five series in what will be 129 years when the next one comes up is why Jim Telfer called it ‘your Everest’ because of the difficulty level of doing it.

Because of that difficulty level, there is added relevance. It is still the ones where fans want to tour when they win, players want to be on that tour when they win.

Clubs and provinces are aware of the honour and are, therefore, hugely supportive of their players going on a Lions tour, performing in a summer when they know they will have to return to their club.

It’s supported by all – that’s the key and that’s the appeal.

Fans love and relish this weird mix of players where you can have an English loose head, a Welsh hooker, an Irish jumper and a number 8 who’s Scottish.

They can marvel at a coach’s ability like Warren Gatland to go to Australia and win, and coaches like Telfer and Ian McGeechan in 1997 and 1989 to go such a long way and triumph.

How do you manage to play alongside players who are not only competing for your national team place but are also from a different country?

It’s much easier – not get picked but to come together - because of the movement of players in the modern game. If you go back to 1959 when Canterbury first got involved with the Lions or even 1997 when I toured with the Lions for the first time when the game had only recently turned professional, players very much stayed with their local clubs.

That was as hard as it got.

Leicester people played for Leicester, Gloucester people played for Gloucester, Coventry, Old Munster, Cardiff, but you now at player movement and the comfort they have of coming together with other players in a short space of time.

The challenge doesn’t get any easier – going to play the best team on the planet – but they do find it easy to bond nowadays because of the travel, the open door policy, the communication between teams after matches.

England v Wales is a good example as players banter with each other on Twitter – and if the likes of Sam Burgess and Jamie Roberts are asked to play alongside each other after being portrayed as ‘deadly enemies’, mutual respect will get them through.

When you consider the difficulty of even getting on a Lions tour given how many players want to go  – then you walk into that first meeting room in that first hotel, be it Weybridge, Edinburgh or Dublin and the best players in the northern hemisphere who don’t play for France are there.

There is a joy of being in it and there’s the wonder when you get out there when you have pigeon holed players as having certain weaknesses or deficiencies or strengths and then you get out on the training field and you think ‘Wow – how did I ever think that was a weakness?’

What was your highlight as a Lion? You toured South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Yes, with descending levels of success…

It is so difficult to choose a highlight. Running out for my game as an uncapped Lion against Eastern Province in South Africa at Port Elizabeth is an obvious high.

There I was … a bloke who had just turned up from Leicester Tigers and hadn’t even played for England.

I had played in a European Cup Final, a Tetley’s Bitter Cup Final but now there is Jenkins, there is Townsend, there’s Guscott next to me… I thought ‘What the heck?’

The first time you pull on your Lions jersey is a special one.

I only ever picked up two caps and receiving my Test jersey even though I was only on the bench covering the great Brian O’Driscoll – that stands out.

As do the umpteen squillion memories from the likes of Cape Town, Brisbane, and to a degree New Zealand where we lost 3-0.

I should be wanting to hide the memory of that tour under the carpet and yet I have the fondest of memories of a team not splintering, not running in different directions when the pressure really was on us.

You can take pride in that as you sometimes come across, as Steven Moore said after the World Cup Final, a better team.

I thought New Zealand 2005 were the greatest team that had ever been until the 2015 All Blacks turned up, so you start to think what a challenge for 2017.

Do the host nations step up their game to play the Lions?

The fact that certain players sign contracts to carry on playing just so they can face the Lions answers that.

Some of the great players of our time have never played against the Lions because it’s every 12 years for them so they are desperate to be involved.

Jonah Lomu never played against the Lions - his New Zealand career lasted from 1995 to 2002 or 2003 – and there will be some great All Blacks from this current team who will never play against the Lions.

Then there’s the history and heritage of it all.

You are welcomed with open arms in a way you are not embraced in you are wearing just your national jersey.

The rugby fraternity are interested in you but not many others are. As a Lion, you are suddenly national news.

That points yet again to the relevance and importance of the Lions.

You try and tell the thousands of fans who put their downpayment on the 2017 tour the second the final whistle went on the 2013 tour that it’s not relevant.

I have worked in the media for the last two tours – 2009 and 2013 – and I have seen shattered people in South Africa and shattered yet elated people in Australia.

They gave their all – as Gatland said they ‘emptied the tank’ for the Lions.

Don’t try and tell me there ain’t no relevance.

Will Greenwood was speaking on behalf of Canterbury, Official Apparel Partner of the British & Irish Lions who have marked the announcement with a commemorative re-issue of the 1959 shirt