Marooned in the crook of the River Thames to the east of the city, you have to make a concerted effort to get there and, when you do, it turns out to be a strange mix of mundane Milton Keynes-esque modern planning and vast but empty Dubai shopping centre. Does an expensively-branded handbag still cost six hundred quid if there’s no-one in the shop to buy it? Situated in Greenwich, a place that, as the dividing line between east and west is literally the centre of the world, it felt like a half-forgotten colony on a distant planet on a day when eyes were trained on a papal conclave in Rome and minds on the 80th anniversary of VE Day. Contrast that with the Six Nations launch earlier this year when tournament organisers brought the various coaches and captains to the Coliseum to sell their wares and it highlights just how unimaginative this big ‘reveal’ was. And let’s not start on the £60 tickets and the slow agony that was the two-hour show. And it’s not even as if the 02 can’t carry a show, whether that be ATP tennis finals, the Rolling Stones or Sabrina Carpenter. Formula 1 hosted its season launch in the very same Indigo theatre earlier this year and it was, by all accounts, a blast. Critics of the Lions will find much of that apt and, if any of it is harsh, then it chimes with a team and a tour that exists, for the most part, far out on the periphery of the sporting consciousness despite its best attempts to curry favour and relevance. The Lions will soon have their days in the sun. Even the most ardent of agnostics can find it hard to maintain that aloofness when the corporate patter and faux-historical syrup is all washed down and the Tests swing around against the southern hemisphere behemoths. And here’s the thing. The Wallabies are nobody’s idea of behemoths right now. Haven’t been for a long time. The Lions have won one Test series since the fabled success in South Africa in 1997. That was in Australia in 2013 when the game Down Under had yet to sink to more historic lows. Joe Schmidt will have the hosts primed and competitive but the battle for eyeballs will break out smack bang in the middle of an AFL season that will see nine games played across every weekend during the Lions visit. Add to that a State of Origin series that will peak with the third meeting of Queensland and New South Wales in Sydney on July 9th and an NRL rugby league season that, like its AFL counterpart, will steamroll through their winter months regardless. That the Lions will demand attention isn’t in doubt. Estimates are that a 40,000-strong red horde will descend on the country from the four ‘home’ nations. This colonisation of Aussie cities and stadia was a memorable part of the 2001 and 2013 tours. Head coach Andy Farrell has no doubt but that it will make for a celebration. “It will be. It 100% will be. I said on stage how big this has been before in the build-up to it. Getting out there in Australia and feeling it with the stadia and the number of tickets that have been sold has surpassed anything that has ever happened. “That’s a fact. They’ll be ready for a fight and the record numbers of sales of travel packages etc are through the roof. It shows when you compare to other tours. In 2013 it was special and, in my opinion, it’s shaping up to be even better than that.” That it exists at all as a concept in this day and age is both remarkable and testament to the fact that money makes most things possible, even in a crowded rugby schedule where players and supporters are being squeezed for every dollar or drop of sweat. This will be the first time that the Lions players avail of a profit share. That’s significant given there was a reported profit of almost €10m from a 2021 tour to South Africa that was a pale shadow of the real thing due to the pandemic and resultant restrictions. The estimate is that each player in the travelling party will make almost €120,000 so the consequences of making it and missing out are significant in a financial standpoint, even if that will be secondary to those involved in the here and now. Farrell spoke about leaving wiggle room in his named squad of 38 players and the fact is that three of those chosen four years ago had to drop out either before or during the tour thanks to injury and a total of five others were called in as replacements or extra cover. Kyle Sinckler was overlooked by Warren Gatland at first but ended up featuring in all three of the Tests against the Springboks. The URC and Premiership finals will be played six days before the tour opener against Argentina in Dublin. Plenty of time for others to take centre stage come the real show.