ROBIN DAVEY SAYS: Pride restored by majestic Lions (From Campaign Series)

ROBIN DAVEY SAYS: Pride restored by majestic Lions

2:10pm Tuesday 7th July 2009

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TO South Africa the series, to the British and Irish Lions the glory.

What a wonderful way for the tour to finish and what a magnificent statement for the ethos of the Lions.

They arrive home with heads held high and reputation restored after their wonderful finale and that shattering 28-9 victory over the Springboks to bring the curtain down on a memorable series.

At the end the Lions succeeded gloriously in the high temple of Springbok rugby. Not so much daunted by the citadel which is Ellis Park in Johannesburg as determined to knock it down, they succeeded at a venue where the current world champions had lost just four times in 40 years.

They had never lost by a double figure margin at their holy of holies and the All Blacks had conceded 86 points on their previous two visits.

Such was the magnitude of the Lions achievement in a victory which equalled their highest ever margin against South Africa - and that would have been eclipsed had the tee holding the ball upright for a simple Stephen Jones conversion not dislodged the ball at the crucial time.

The Lions knew they had deserved to go into that finale at least on level terms, they knew they were unlucky in the first Test and they knew they should have won the second Test, deprived of victory by underhand Springbok tactics which cost them of some of their best players.

So despite a number of absentees, even if the Springboks also made a raft of changes, they arrived with that indomitable Lions spirit which had been so gloriously restored by the twin axis of Ian McGeechan and Gerald Davies, two former greats who knew exactly what being a Lion really meant.

So emotions were running high when Warren Gatland - a New Zealander to boot - delivered what appears to be the defining dressing room talk which tipped the balance and sent the players out knowing they couldn’t possibly lose.

He had them in tears as he told them how it would be the last chance for many in that dressing room, the final time they would ever don that red Lions jersey. Did they want to be remembered as losers or did they want to go out in a blaze of glory?

That did it. The Lions were as one, four countries united in a common cause and playing like it.

Shane Williams was back to his impudent best, becoming only the third Lion to score two tries in a Test while Ugo Monye made up for previous frailties by galloping away to glory on an interception try.

The Lions had done it, they had achieved what even the Invincibles of 1974 failed to do - they had won the final Test. On top of that they won the series on points aggregate 74-63 and they won it on tries 7-5.

Justice had indeed been done, but not of the type the Springboks had wanted with their childish armbands of ‘justice for 4’ in a reference to the two-week ban on lock Bakkies Botha for the barge on Adam Jones in the second Test which dislocated the Welshman’s shoulder. After two disastrous tours the very meaning of the Lions had been restored, touching scenes at the end with members of the four home countries embracing one another, reflected by seven players from three countries now heading off to Las Vegas on a five-day break - Mike Phillips, Ugo Monye, Tommy Bowe, Lee Byrne, Alun Wyn Jones, Andy Powell and Gordon D’Arcy.

And the man mainly responsible for restoring pride was McGeechan, who is the very essence of what the Lions are all about. He’s calling it a day after an astonishing run of seven tours, two as a player, four as head coach and one as assistant.

He can go to his grave as Mr Lions, but his departure is with more than a touch of sadness. How appropriate, therefore, that in a Johannesburg bar one night last week McGeechan should make the tribute in a farewell of another great - Peter Jackson, the Daily Mail’s rugby correspondent.

For one year late just to take in the Lions tour, he has decided to call time on a memorable career as one of journalism’s giants. When he made it known he was going some time ago no-one believed him.

Surely not was the common view for the place would not be the same without him, but slowly it dawned that he really was retiring.

How fitting that his final game should be that glorious Lions victory. If ever there was a 25-hours a day man in this demanding business it was Jacko, the reporter who struck fear into every club and every player when the phone call came, the man who revolutionised national rugby reporting with an endless stream of exclusive stories.

McGeechan apparently produced a signed dirty old mac at that farewell signed by all the players because he likened Jacko to Columbo, that relentless detective who always got his man.

That was Jacko. He always got the story, nothing was ever beyond him - three matches in three different countries on a Heineken Cup weekend, a Six Nations double weekend, one exclusive story after another.

A real gem and utterly irreplaceable.

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