LIONS TOUR:IT WAS difficult to escape the feeling of witnessing a carefully choreographed opening dance as Lions coach Ian McGeechan, captain Paul O'Connell and team manager Gerald Davies schmoozed their way through a series of ostensibly polite enquiries about the physical and mental well-being of the squad at a press conference some five hours after Air Force Scrum touched down in Johannesburg.

The Lions are in South Africa for the first time since 1997, looking to emulate or better that Test series victory (2-1) achieved under the same head coach. This time they are on a 10-match tour that begins this Saturday when they travel to Rustenberg to take on a Royal XV.

Conversation will invariably be coloured by broad theoretical brushstrokes until such time as McGeechan announces his first team - it's likely to be Thursday afternoon. Only then will this tour begin to take a definite shape as combinations are transported from the training ground to the match arena.

The Lions coach is adamant that everyone will get an opportunity to stake a claim for a Test place in the opening three matches. The Scot must operate under one or two minor constraints, primarily in allowing those players who participated in the Heineken Cup final a chance not only to recuperate physically but catch up with work completed by the rest of the squad in London last week.

McGeechan initially attended to some housekeeping with regard to Brian O'Driscoll's shoulder, an injury the player aggravated in victory over the Leicester Tigers. "Yes it's fine. There are no problems. We said that we wanted to start the tour with 36 fit players and that is what we are doing.

"Obviously we have got to manage a little bit more carefully the players that played over the weekend. We have the best medical conditioning team we could have so we will make sure we do that during that week. I have said to the players that they will get an opportunity to play for a Test place. I don't anticipate picking the Test team until Test week.

"The Test team will probably have its first game together in that first Test but we will obviously be working on combinations, seeing different players playing together. As coaches we have to keep an open mind in the first six games of the tour."

Last week the Lions squad came together to try and fast-track the bonding process thereby looking to avoid repeating the mistakes of the 2005 tour to New Zealand, a venture that in practice had all the appeal of a hair suit. Cumbersome numerically, both in playing and coaching personnel, and dogged by misfortune, it has served to galvanise the latest red-shirted incumbents, especially O'Connell.

"I think it is important that when the players wear the jersey on this tour they live up to the tradition and the history of the jersey. When you look back at some of the players who have worn the British and Irish Lions jerseys down through the years they are great players. In 2005 we didn't live up to that.

"A lot of things went against us on the tour (but) at the same time I don't think that we did the tradition proud. For me, personally, after 2005, that's a big motivation. I know for a few of the other guys on the tour it is the same thing. Living up to the tradition of the jersey is a big thing; (it's there) when we play for our club, when playing for Munster, for Ireland and I think the same applies to the British and Irish Lions.

"There's a big buzz (in the squad). I think the fact that there is a lot less people than what I have been used to is the best thing about it. Everyone is on the pitch at the same time; everyone is in and around the gym at the same time; everyone's in and around the team room at the same time. That's harder with a large group but with a small intimate group like we have that's been happening.

"There are a lot of good friendships being made, characters emerging and that's going to be a big thing for us. The talent is there in the group. The coaching is there, no doubt about it, so it is about us becoming a team. Last week was a good step towards that."

Capturing the essence of what it means to be a Lion is also important to McGeechan who emphasised: "Putting a Lions jersey on makes a difference, certainly in our players' eyes, it is the top of their career. They are very ambitious to do well in a Lions jersey and I think that is very important."

Saturday will provide the opportunity to translate the abstract to the tangible.