DREAM teams, nightmare line-ups, best 11s, worst 15s - whether the sport is football or rugby or whatever, we all like to indulge in a bit of speculation about who would or should be in various sides. And, with a British and Irish Lions tour coming up next summer, there has already been a lot of speculation about who will be in Warren Gatland’s squad for the three-Test trip to New Zealand next summer.

No problem there. With the leading contenders in action every weekend, there is always fresh evidence to be pressed into service in favour of our preferred candidates, and in the months leading up to the squad announcement in mid-April interest in selection is sure to rise. The Lions only assemble once every four years, and only take on the All Blacks once every 12, so of course it’s a big deal.

But even if we take that as read, there is surely a strong case to be made for not going overboard with it all. For not coming away from every match and arguing the toss about who has enhanced his chances of a Lions place and who has damaged his hopes.

For not viewing the whole season through the prism of one event on the other side of the world that, for the vast majority of Scottish players no matter how many may be selected, has no direct relevance. Indeed, for perhaps even saying that the Lions are a diversion, and that the pinnacle for those Scottish players has to be to achieve as much success as possible with their own national team.

That is not to detract either from the high standard of play that will be in evidence on the tour, or from the fascination that can be derived from seeing the Lions Test side evolve over the course of the build-up. On the latter point, it can be really intriguing, whether from a sports-psychology point of view or simply as an insight into the way coaches work, to watch a style of play evolve and certain players come to the fore during the first few weeks. The 1997 tour to South Africa was the classic example of that, as Jim Telfer and Ian McGeechan slowly sculpted a side that went on to beat the Springboks, and which was far from being the one that many people would have expected to start the first Test.

So let’s take all that as read. There will be some great rugby on offer and it may well be of a higher standard than anything we see in the Six Nations and some Scots will be involved and if the Lions win the series it will be a great achievement and they may well be there, in late 2017, receiving the team-of-the-year award on BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

But we can be fascinated by great rugby even when the two sides involved have nothing to do with us; when we owe no allegiance to either. And certainly, when we hear something or other about potential Lions selection every single day, there is a risk of getting our priorities wrong, especially at a point in the season where the Six Nations has not even begun, European competition is still at the pool stages and the PRO12 play-offs are also some way off.

In that regard, while I’m sure all the players concerned are far too professional to be distracted by any Lions chat, it would be refreshing, and perhaps also reassuring, if a couple of them did publicly assert their lack of interest in the tour and instead say they regarded playing for Scotland as the highest honour available. Realistically, the standard of play reached by Scotland may never be as high as that attained by the Lions, but that’s not the point. It’s about saying where your priorities lie; where you want your energies to go; and yes, where your heart is.

Would that be a nationalistic stance? Perhaps, if the players in question were that way inclined. But it would also be equally reassuring if players from the other minority partners in the Lions project, Ireland and Wales, were to say the same thing, because it would be a declaration of sporting independent-mindedness, and a refusal to subscribe to the notion that winning for your country is not the pinnacle.

So it’s not about Scotland in itself. It’s about saying, in rugby’s professional era, that the real summits of the game are the annual continental championship and the quadrennial global tournament, the Six Nations and the World Cup.

That is the real hierarchy of the game: the main competitions in which national teams compete, and below them the principal club tournaments, European and domestic. Lions enthusiasts like to talk of the touring side as the apex of that hierarchy, but in reality it’s in a separate compartment of its own.

Scotland may not win the World Cup any time soon, but they’ve got a better chance than the Lions have. And if a couple of our leading players did become defiantly independent-minded in their commitment to Scotland and their lack of interest in the Lions, that chance might just get a little bigger.