The Tangled Mane

The Lions - no other name in rugby union evokes such memories and stirs such passions. In the summer of 2001, the Lions embarked on one of their most intimidating tours. They travelled to Australia to play a three-Test series against the reigning world champions, the Wallabies. During the tour the play would be of such a high quality that rugby would have to redefine its measures of excellence. The series was so finely balanced that in the closing minutes of the deciding Test, everything hung on a single line-out. Passionate support on both sides generated a party-atmosphere never seen or heard before in Australia, and yet acrimony and animosity elsewhere dogged the tour at every turn. There was occasional, shocking violence on the field of play. Eddie Butler travelled with the 2001 Lions as a former player and as a working journalist. This is his account of the tour that may have changed the course of his sport. He details the context of this model, professional adventure, charts its progress from one end of a vast country to the other and rides the peaks and troughs of its triumphs, controversies and, ultimately, its failures.