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Atoa team-mate o our.

The best discipline will be critical to this series. JOHN MITCHELL

created cracks. He had to deal with the non-selection of Brian O’Driscoll on the last tour.’’

Getting his players used to the pace of Kiwi rugby is obviously key, too. While the 53-year-old former NZ coach agrees that history will be lost with no provincial match-ups in this tour, Mitchell thinks it will provide far superior preparation for the Lions for the three tests – and better test football for when they finally meet the All Blacks.

‘‘It gives them enough time before the first test to really come to grips with the pace of the game [in New Zealand],’’ he says. ‘‘Certainly, the Super sides will play at a pace that will prepare them well for what’s going to come in the test series.’’

Mitchell believes the result of the first test will dictate the competitiveness of the series – and his old teammate’s best chance to catch the All Blacks off-guard. ‘‘For the Lions, like most test teams, that first test is the one you can get – because there’s no doubt the All Blacks will get better,’’ he says.

‘‘Pressure is a funny thing as well, and if the Lions can get the first test, it will put a different kind of pressure on the All Blacks that we probably haven’t seen for some time. But they’ve also showed us they can get back on the horse as well, like they did against Ireland last year.

‘‘If the All Blacks get that first test, I think there’ll be even further clarity – and even more confidence within [Steve Hansen’s] group. So I think a lot of this series is going to be on the result of that first test and the performances in that test.’’

For Mitchell, nostalgia for the Lions goes beyond that magical day in Hamilton in 1993.

The Hawera-born coach remembers watching games from the 1977 tour as a student at New Plymouth’s Francis Douglas Memorial College.

‘‘The Lions came to Francis Douglas in those days as well, in assembly,’’ he says. ‘‘I was fortunate enough to have the excoach of Taranaki, the late Leo Walsh [who died in 2008], as my deputy principal, so we’d used to see Graham Mourie and Dave Loveridge during all those series.

‘‘For me, the Lions bring back not only rugby memories as a player – but it brings back childhood memories as well. For young New Zealand boys to witness the Lions – whether on TV, seeing them live or if they come through their school – is massive.

‘‘Those social and community connections – and what that does to the fabric of New Zealanders – is inspiring the pathway for future All Blacks.’’

While we know what role the Lions played in, and continue to play, in the lives of Mitchell and Gatland, Collins’ story remains unclear.

After spells at King Country, Poverty Bay and Bay of Plenty, he headed to the UK where he was last seen coaching lower level Scottish club rugby in 2007.

In life, not everyone gets the big job of course. But then again, not everyone can say that, once, they beat the Lions.

‘‘[Collins] didn’t go on to play a huge amount of games for Waikato, but some get those big games and some don’t,’’ Mitchell says.

‘‘As a provincial player or even as an ex-All Black, you don’t know if you are going to get those opportunities – they’re such big one-offs. They create huge memories for people.’’