Great expectations as Lions prepare for All Blacks

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Past and present All Blacks have swamped television advertisements for the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand with a succinct message.

It is simply, “the greatest series” and for once the claim is hardly marketing hyperbole.

Never has a Lions side arrived in New Zealand with greater expectations.

England, which has provided 15 of the 41 players, is currently ranked second in the world behind the All Blacks while coach Warren Gatland added 11 from Ireland, which is fourth and hammered the world champion for the first time last year in Chicago.

Gatland also selected 12 Welsh players, including tour captain Sam Warburton, whom he knows well through his day job as coach of the Wales side. That familiarity will no doubt aid the former All Blacks hooker in gelling 41 players from four different countries with little preparation time.

Because of club commitments at the end of the long European season, only 14 players attended a training camp in Cardiff two weeks ago while a few more arrived in Dublin last week.

Gatland therefore might not get a chance to see some of the players he is considering for the first Test on June 24 until the third game of the tour against the Canterbury Crusaders.

The match against the seven-time champion will be the last Super Rugby side where the Lions face any All Blacks, who go into camp after the June 10 clash in Christchurch.

The Lions are well aware they have won just one previous series in New Zealand, when the 1971 side coached by Carwyn James clinched a 2-1 victory with the fourth Test a 14-14 draw at Eden Park.

It is not coincidental that two of the three Tests on the tour will be held at the revenue-maximizing Auckland venue. The All Blacks have not lost there since 1994, a run of 36 victories and one draw, while they are also unbeaten in New Zealand since 2009 – a sequence of 45 successive wins.