The challenge is that you're working with highly talented individuals in a powerful and totally unique environment. We'll win only if everything comes together and everybody's involved When you get it right it's like no other feeling.''. We've already had a few meetings and there's a buzz, a very good feeling. "I think Clive's relieved that he's not doing this job while still coaching England.

It would make it very onerous.''This will be McGeechan's fourth tour in a management role, having been first seduced by the Lions when selected for the politically volatileengage-ment in South Africa in 1974. I'd watched some of the '71 Lions in New Zealand and been absolutely thrilled. To be involved three years later with the same players meant I was like a little boy in a sweet shop. My first thought was that I'd better make sure I didn't let myself down.''McGeechan feels you should let sleeping Lions lie, which means the retirement from Test rugby of players like Johnson should mean just that. At the time he was a centre for Headingley."We had to meet up at a London hotel, and I'll never forget walking into the reception and seeing Gareth Edwards, JPR Williams and Willie John McBride. Following his tour of South Africa in 1997, when he coached a squad led by Johnson, he was offered the post for the assignment in Australia but declined, citing his duties with Scotland as being of paramount importance."Being head coach of the Lions involves nine months' planning and is a huge respon-sibility," McGeechan says. They know not only about British rugby but the Lions, and that can be invaluable It's not something they had in the past.

I think we're going to have to be a bit special to win it.''Woodward describes the All Blacks coach, Graham Henry, and his assistants, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith, as the "most potent brains trust in New Zealand history". It is some claim and has yet to be verified, but McGeechan's point is valid - their opponents have experience of insider trading.Few would have anticipated that Henry, appointed as Lions coach on the 2001 tour to Australia when he was in charge of Wales, would be the archi-tect of the All Blacks for the 2005 Lions visit. Hansen, as Henry's successor in the Principality, and Smith, a former coach of Northampton, form a trinity whose interest in professional rugby in this country almost amounts to incest.The logical choice as Lions coach four years ago was Woodward; his pre-eminent England provided the bulk of the party, including the captain, Martin Johnson, but the series was lost 2-1, Henry having to put up with some behaviour, particularly from England players, that belonged in a schoolyard.Actually, it's McGeechan's fault. If the midweek performances are positive that can drive the Test team, but the door has to be open. There's a tradition of players who may not be recognised as internationals becoming Lions, and that's something that should not be lost."I was very impressed with the All Blacks on their recent tour, and one of the most striking things is the strength of their coaching team. "Look at the resources the All Blacks will throw at this and then tell me we're being extravagant.''Woodward is expected to work with his England successor Andy Robinson, the Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan and the England defence coach Phil Larder, while McGeechan, the Llanelli coach Gareth Jenkins and Mike Ford, the Ireland defensive coach, form a second front, all under the managership of Bill Beaumont."It's important for people to realise,'' McGeechan points out, "that because there are two support groups it doesn't mean there'll be two preordained teams Every player has to have the chance of staking his claim That means no early decisions. Up to 80 men from the home countries will undertake the 11-match, six-week tour in June and July, including a 27-strong management team."This is about us in the British Isles wanting to be the best whatever the cost,'' Woodward says.

"When I was at school I was a 100 yards runner and won plenty of medals. Now my grandchildren have them."Bert Bushnell is an enthusiastic supporter of Britain's bid to bring the 2012 Olympics back to London. "There has to be something wrong with any Brit if he doesn't wish for that I'm not sure I'll still be around if it happens," he smiled "But I'll try.". When Sir Clive Woodward invited Ian McGeechan to join his formidable coaching team for the Lions tour to New Zealand the Scot was surprised and delighted, but it didn't stop him laying down a vital condition - there would be no them and us. "When Clive rang me and asked if I fancied going to New Zealand I replied that of course I did, but on the understanding that the players travelled as one group,'' McGeechan says "He agreed. "I used to have the medal on display in my villa in the Algarve and it got pinched," he said. "So I went down to the local boozer and told everybody my medal had been stolen by people who didn't realise it was only lead sprayed with gold Nobody in the bar said a bloody word.

Two days later the medal came back in the post."Now the medal is in safe keeping at Henley's rowing museum, donated when Bushnell returned to live in Britain He claims he doesn't miss seeing it around. What bugged me was that the people who came from overseas, like the Australian Mervyn Wood, who won the singles gold, were paid for by their governments, but we didn't dare take a penny for anything."After building up a successful river- cruise hire company in Maidenhead, Bushnell sold it and retired to Portugal. "I've got enough medals without this one," he said after it had been handed reverently into his temporary possession for picture-taking purposes by a museum attendant wearing white gloves. Bushnell's intake was augmented when his parents and brother gave him part of their meat rations, while many foreign competitors imported their own. Among these was Jack Kelly, who struck up a friendship with Bushnell and one night came to dinner bearing a huge steak.All the Kelly family had come over from Philadelphia to watch Jack, who was a surprise loser in the singles semi-finals, but most eyes were on Grace. "She was called Little Gracie and we were all vying to take her out," said Bert, who landed the date. "She told me she wanted to be a dancer but her mother wouldn't permit it."About 18 months later I got a postcard from Grace saying she had walked out and enrolled in a dance school.