The hungry Lion tamer

Then just 22, Irvine had emerged in a golden era for British and Irish rugby, for the Lions had also clinched a series win in New Zealand three years earlier. But the pinnacle had been reached. Irvine would add seven more Lions caps over the course of the tours to New Zealand in 1977 and South Africa in 1980, but the team lost both series: the former in a welter of bad publicity; the latter amidst huge political controversies.

Irvine rekindled his affair with the combined side in 2009, when he was appointed Lions chairman ahead of that year's tour to South Africa. The venture was a social and commercial triumph, and the Lions went a long way towards repairing the damage done to their sporting credibility by Clive Woodward's calamitous stewardship of the 2005 tour to New Zealand. But they still lost, going down 2-1 to the Springboks.

Which is why, amidst all the other concerns he must carry as manager of this year's tour to Australia, Irvine has made winning the priority. It might sound trite, but the Lions have a long and not particularly proud history of being good losers, a tradition that is unsustainable in the professional era. Their popularity has gone through the roof over the past two decades, but they have not won a series since their sensational success in South Africa in 1997.

"We're well aware of that," Irvine says when the point is brought up. "In my farewell speech [last Sunday] I looked at all the players in the room who between them have won RaboDirect titles, Aviva finals, Amlin Cups, Heineken Cups, Triple Crowns, Grand Slams and all the rest of it. And I reminded them that there is not one player in that party who has played in a winning Lions series. So that has to be the objective before any- thing else. We are extremely well aware of it. In 2009 we came bloody close to winning. We played good enough rugby to win the series, but the game can be cruel because the better team does not always win.

"We had unbelievably bad luck, particularly in the second Test when we had so many injuries. So yes, we are well aware of the fact that we haven't won since 97. Hopefully that can be an even greater spur to the boys."

While the side of 2005 were simply not in the same league as their All Black opponents, most neutrals would probably agree that the teams who went to Australia in 2001 and South Africa in 2009 were at least the equals of, and probably better than, their opponents. The reasons for their defeats were complex, but at the top of the list of causes comes the fact that their pre-tour preparation time was minuscule.

"I would have preferred to have access to all the players for a couple of weeks," Irvine says. "Going forward, the unions and the clubs will need to get together about this.

"We are stuck with an agreement that is 12 years old and we have one more tour to go. After that, there will be a very strong recommendation that no tour departs without having at least a couple of weeks together. We had 12 or 13 guys playing in the Aviva and PRO12 finals last weekend. Big games. To be doing that the day before you leave is just not clever."

Where the Lions did succeed in 2009 was in the way they ran their affairs. Beautifully managed by Gerald Davies, they somehow got through the entire tour without a single controversy of any note. The world waited for news of drunken bust-ups and dwarf-throwing episodes, but the Lions conducted themselves superbly. Davies treated them like grown-ups and the players returned his trust.

"The template was set by Gerald, Ian McGeechan and the other coaches on that tour," says Irvine. "What they did there is what we want to replicate in 2013. We are making a couple of tweaks, but they have been pretty minor. The major things – players sharing rooms, not telling porky pies to the media when somebody is injured, trusting players to act sensibly – we will repeat. It's really just common sense."

Lions managers play no part in selection, but Irvine sat in on the discussions when the squad was being chosen. "Once the coach is chosen you have to let him get on with it. In a professional game, you can't have meddling like you used to. It's like football, where you appoint a manager and then let him get on with it. Well, other than Hearts that is."

So what was he doing at the meetings in the first place? Irvine's reply reinforces the philosophy of the tour. "The only point where I might have intervened was if they had gone for someone who I thought might be a real liability as a tourist or as a person," he says. "If they pick someone who is a celebrity rather than rugby player.

"But that was always pretty remote because Warren Gatland is not stupid. He understands the culture of having a good set of tourists. You want guys who can work with each other, play hard and train hard, who can enjoy themselves, who can let their hair down occasionally but sensibly. We are very much on the same wavelength there."

And yet there are some significant things that make Australia a very different proposition to South Africa. There is a belligerence about the local media, a prickliness even, and the Lions will be savaged for producing even a whiff of an old colonial attitude. There are also potential issues around late kick-off times – demanded by broadcasters – and Irvine is well aware of the potential pitfalls there.

"It's one of the biggest challenges of this tour," he says. "If you kick off at eight o'clock then by the time you've had your shower and any medical attention, it will be past midnight. How do the boys then socialise?

"If you kick-off at three o'clock you can go out and have a couple of beers at eight or nine o'clock. That's what happened in South Africa and it worked out fine. But it's a different story if you're going out at one o'clock in the morning.

"I still believe that one of the important things on a tour is that you do socialise after a game. You meet your opposite number and so forth. But that's a challenge for us because we can't have guys out until four or five in the morning, especially if there is a bit of travel involved."

Of course, there is a degree of irony in the fact that it falls to Irvine to set the tone of the tour, as Scottish accents will have a certain rarity value on the trip. Irvine was one of six Scots on the 1974 tour, but only half that number have been chosen for this year's playing squad. Staggeringly, no Scot has started a Test for the Lions since Tom Smith in Australia in 2001.

Officially, Irvine is blind to issues of nationality from this point on, but he admits he was disappointed by such a low representation. "I make no bones about it, I would have loved to have seen more Scots. I know from personal experience that the guys who do go out will return as better players. It is just a pity that there weren't more of them.

"I know that there were four or five guys very close to going out who will be on our first call reserve list. You don't want any injuries on tour, but it is almost inevitable that they will happen, and there are certainly three or four Scottish lads who will be in the frame."

Irvine, now 61, has an arduous tour ahead of him, far more hands-on and demanding than the almost ceremonial role he had in South Africa four years ago, when he went out for the opening match, flew home, and then returned for the Test series. Having all but vanished from rugby for 20 years after his playing days ended in the early 1980s, he has been a busy figure in the administration of Scottish, Celtic and Lions rugby for the past decade.

So when the tour is over, and he has written his manager's report, will he hang up the blazer for good? "I'll certainly have a good rest," he laughs. "You can be assured of that. I think I will probably stay involved in some capacity, but there's not much more you can do after you've been the manager of the Lions."