EVERY TOURING team manager will say that the object of the exercise is to "win very match". But invariably they will add: "The primary objective, however, even if we lose some of the provincial matches, is to win the best series, then the tour will be deemed an outstanding success".
Such statements are a protective device in case they lose some provincial matches. But any study of a successful touring side will show that the team that has won the Test series will have lost few, if any, of the provincial matches. And every touring team manager knows it.
Whatever psychological approach the 1997 Lions management adopts with the players, there is no doubt that the Lions face a demanding itinerary. And there is the added element that must be taken into consideration in relation to a tour to South Africa and that is the altitude factor.
Furthermore, there are no breaks in the tour no midweek rest, no halfway break.
Gone are the days when Lions tours lasted three and a half months, when players could have a holiday around the halfway point. Today's shortened tours do not allow for such a luxury. Maximising financial return is far more important for the host nation than cutting a tour by a match to allow for a break.
The Lions will play 13 matches between May 24th and July 5th. That represents a match every Saturday and every Wednesday or Tuesday.
The three Tests will take place on successive Saturdays over a fortnight at the end of the tour. Before those Tests, the Lions can expect a warm reception in the provincial matches.
Now of course the Super 12 series has given a broad base of international experience to the South African representatives in that competition.
However, of the four South African representatives, only Natal has managed to get into the top four. They won five of their 10 matches. Transvaal, now known as Geuteng Lions, won four and drew one, Northern Transvaal won three and drew three and Free State won four but lost the other six.
There is a suggestion that the provincial players in the Springboks squad will not play for their provinces against the Lions, at least not after the Springboks go into camp before the first Test on June 21st. So it may be significant that the Lions will meet Northern Transvaal, Transvaal and Natal before the first Test.
Northern Transvaal meet the Lions on June 7th in the fifth match of the tour, the Lions take on Transvaal just four days later on June 11th and Natal on June 14th.
Three matches of that kind in the space of 10 days will test the depth of the Lions' squad. One might say that the South Africans are clever getting away with a programme like that, or that the Lions are foolish to have accepted it.
Three days after the first Test, it is back to the high veldt and the match against Free State in Bloemfontein on June 24th and back again to sea level for the second Test in Durban on June 28th. Then it is back, once more, to altitude for the final week and a midweek match against Northern Free State in Welkom on July 1st and the final Test in Ellis Park on July 5th.
One word suggests itself in relation to the trek around the country, the schedule and level of opposition the Lions will meet awesome.
The Lions will be on win bonuses, they will most certainly earn them. They have 35 players and will need every one of them. Injuries are a very important element on a tour and the Lions will have to cope with losing at least a few of those who travel out today. What they cannot afford is to lose any of their key placers.
The last Lions team to tour South Africa had to call out eight replacements in 1980.
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