Lions tours are often described as a pub chat made real, which is intended as a slight on the worthiness of it all. A format that involves a “best of” team taking on preordained opposition can’t have any street cred, right? Besides the fact that most sports competitions were probably first conceived of over a few pints, let’s say congratulations to the three former English cricketers, Alfred Shaw, Arthur Shrewsbury and James Lillywhite, for the sheer scale of their ambition and for the wonderful clarity of the plan they drew up back in 1887: gather up the best talent in…

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