Peter Bills: Pack mentality is the key for the Lions

Some doubtless still feel on top of the world this morning, a whole week after the 2009 Lions touring squad was announced. Others continue to suffer as if their hearts have been broken.

That is what the hype and expectation adds up to for the 37 players chosen to represent the British & Irish Lions on their tour of South Africa, starting next month, and the others who didn't make the party. The fact that the Lions now tour only every four years has heightened the sense of expectation and achievement for so many players in Ireland and the countries of the British Isles.

Pity poor Tomas O'Leary, included for the first time as a Lion, but now ruled out thanks to a broken ankle in a Magners League match last weekend. A worse fate, if that were possible, than that experienced by the Cardiff and Wales flanker Stuart Lane on the 1980 Lions tour of South Africa.

Lane was chosen for the opening match of that tour, against Eastern Province at Port Elizabeth. He lasted just 50 seconds, never touched the ball but was then helped off the field and out of the tour with cartilage damage to his right knee.

Yet in a sense, and this is not meant as an insult to any player chosen for the 2009 Lions tour or indeed any single tour before it, the names of the individuals do not matter. It is the collective that is the key.

Lions coach Ian McGeechan has been ramming home that message, in his usual calm, quiet yet insistent manner, ever since it was announced that he would return to South Africa, the scene of his triumphs as a player with the Lions in 1974 and coach of them, in 1997.

McGeechan knows that every day is precious in so short a time frame confronting the Lions. Let's face it, many members of this South African side first came together in 2004, when they won the Tri-Nations under their new coach Jake White. They have since won a World Cup and have an experience of togetherness that the 2009 Lions don't have a hope of matching in their few short weeks as colleagues.

The Lions tour starts on 30 May and ends on 4 July. Just 10 matches and then they are consigned to history.

Yet history teaches us a very valuable lesson as to attitudes which can prevail, even against the most enormous odds. Back in 1995, the Springboks scrum half at that memorable World Cup in South Africa, was Joost van der Westhuizen, a fast, brilliant, competitive player.

When those Springboks won that World Cup, it was an emotional moment for the newly unified country. But it was what van der Westhuizen said later that had a powerful resonance as regards future teams, whatever the sport.

"In a sense, it wasn't about winning the World Cup" he said, to some surprise. "It was about achieving our goal; that was what meant more to us."

The South African was spot-on in his view. A trophy is ultimately a trophy, a piece of silverware and no more. Victories are wonderful and celebrated regally. But it is not the actual raising of some trophy that will thereafter disappear behind closely guarded doors for the next few years, which is the triumph.

It is the realisation of a dream, a sense that every individual has contributed to bringing about that happy state of affairs. Long nourished ambitions and aspirations have been achieved, brought to fruition: this, surely, is the abiding memory for anyone who has reached a peak of achievement, whatever his sport or profession.

In the case of the Lions, how does McGeechan inculcate that aspiration among his players in so short a period of time? How does he excite and enthuse their minds with the ambition of making the 2009 Lions a true success story, against most expectations? How does he do that so successfully that even players of lesser technical ability than their opposite numbers, triumph and prevail through a stronger sense of the collective? The fact that the Lions have so rarely achieved it, proves how difficult it is for them.

This area will, almost certainly, hold the key to the ultimate fate of the 2009 Lions tour. If McGeechan succeeds, as he did in 1997 as coach, perhaps even the world champions will find it hard to quell the sheer spirit and driving ambition within the mind of every Lion.

A wish to play a part, however great or small, in the triumph of an ambition, the fulfilment of a collective goal, as Joost van der Westhuizen said, is a powerful factor in any sporting contest. It should not be overlooked.