The Lions is one of the strongest and wealthiest rugby brands on the planet. Founded on the mystique of long, distant and barely reported overseas tours, it remains a celebrated anomaly in the rugby calendar. From the height of Corinthian amateurism, it has accommodated rugby’s move to professionalism with an uncredited ease but with this has come a change in atmosphere; the mystical has become the public. The unique scarceness has been replaced by the present penchant for presentation; all must be revealed. This tour already has, and will continue to be, well gassed (that means hyped, for older readers).