The most experienced member of the British & Irish Lions party is confident that in his specialist area he cannot lose in the forthcoming Test series in Australia.

As James Robson headed off with the Lions for a sixth time this week, the Scotland team doctor moved to within one of the record of the seven tours made by his fellow Anglo-Scot Ian McGeechan.

Robson's is a unique sequence, however, since they have been in succession, while McGeechan, then on his fourth tour and his second in succession in 1993, asked the former physiotherapist to make the trip to New Zealand as his dual skill set made him doubly valuable.

These days the Lions have the wherewithal to bring pretty much as many medics and other support crew as they want but, for all that he would never take it for granted, the knowledge accrued in the intervening 20 years makes Robson something close to irreplaceable. It has also allowed him to play a major part in player welfare as the sport has moved from amateurism into the professional era.

"The Lions gives you a different angle on things because you end up talking to people from other countries," he said. "Ahead of this tour I got a phone call from one of the Lions players I don't know asking if I was taking a particular piece of equipment because he has a problem which was dealt with using it. I admitted I had never heard of it so said I would make enquiries, as a result of which I've changed something I was not taking on tour to something I am.

"Pitchside care is like that. It evolves all the time and you learn from some of the most unexpected quarters. The beauty about going on a Lions tour in particular is it gives you a very high profile and therefore local people of a similar mind tend to seek you out.

"The other thing Lions tours do, or certainly the last Lions tour did, was highlight the debate over the way injuries were perceived by the public. That amplified, and what came out of that was the IRB making sure they now have an annual medical conference.

"People started talking in a way we weren't before and that was borne out of what was an exciting but fairly infamous second Test when we had five people sent to hospital and the South Africans I think had three. Fortunately that was the exception, but every now and then the exception makes the rule, and the rule is that to cope with trauma you need to be well trained."

Cumbria-born but a commitedly adopted Dundonian, Robson's family life has revolved around Lions tours – his daughters Eleanor and Emma having, as he points out, never known anything else. "I absolutely love it," he said. "It's been an essential part of my life for more than 20 years so from that point of view it's almost an addiction and a craving. If you ask anyone from the wider management, everybody wants to be part of the Lions tour. Even before it's finished you start thinking about the next tour in anticipation that anything you can do to smooth the machine and help the Lions is something to be done."

Still boyish in demeanour, Robson is an enthusiastic supporter, often quite animated in indicating either satisfaction or displeasure from the sidelines, while waiting in the hope he is not required professionally during Scotland and Lions games. While part of the inner sanctum attending selection meetings, and merely there to offer advice on the physical readiness of contenders for positions, he has none the less been known to offer his opinions privately to coaches about the choices they have made.

Ahead of this tour, then, the temptation to ask what his Test XV would be had to be asked, albeit it was inevitable that he would find a diplomatic way to decline. "I won't - not because I wouldn't like to but only a third of these players have been on a Lions tour so two thirds are relatively unknown to me," said Robson. "Until you actually see them working, see them training, you can't make a proper judgment – although I'm aware of these individuals playing in their own teams, I've done my research and have been keeping an interest since last autumn and through the Six Nations."

However, it is a different matter when it comes to identifying his all-time best XV from his five previous tours, even if that answer, too, is ultimately incomplete. "I'm actually busy picking a XV at the moment because I have a charity challenge with David Owens, the Hong Kong doctor, and I haven't finished my team yet. But neither has he," he explained. "Certain people are definitely in - Martin Johnson, Richard Hill, Scott Quinnell, Keith Wood, Tommy Bowe, Gavin Hastings, Rory Underwood, Peter Winterbottom. I don't want to give any more away because I might give David a clue. We're going to submit our XVs to an independent adjudicator and the loser will make a donation to charity."

Over the next few weeks another 40 or so players will get the chance to force their way into first the Test XV, while a select few may achieve that even greater accolade of making the Robson Select. Their hope will also be that they do not play a part in widening his sports medicine experience, but if they do find themselves in that situation they can draw confidence from knowing they could not be in better hands.