WHO’S OUR SCARY MASCOT?

TRADITION is paramount with the Lions — and being the youngest player on tour, Maro Itoje will have to take Bil (an acronym for British and Irish Lions) the team mascot under his wing in New Zealand. Saracens and England lock Itoje, 22, will be tasked with lugging the stuffed lion around for six weeks. On the last two tours Keith Earls (2009) and Stuart Hogg (2013) had the responsibility, and yesterday captain Sam Warburton introduced Itoje to his new pal. ‘Despite all your success, you are the youngest player on tour so you’ll have to look after Bil with all your power for six weeks,’ he said. ‘We will hand him over to you when the squad get together. ‘I look forward to seeing you then, and so does Bil.’ The mascot has been a stalwart of Lions tours for decades, but in 2013 Leo, the old version, was replaced by a new incarnation Bil, or Billy to his friends. Replacing Leo, after he entered a well-earned retirement, was a Herculean task — it took no fewer than 12 people 18 months to find the right toy lion, nobody was quite able to come across a beast with a sinister enough expression on its face. Eventually, though, in March 2013, Bil was found in a toy shop in Geneva Airport by Charlie McEwan, then the Lions sales and marketing director, who was returning from a skiing holiday with his wife. Bil’s mean stare gained the approval of the players and coaching staff, and it was decided that he was an aptly ferocious representative of the touring side. Itoje will be tasked with transporting the mascot around the country for the duration of the tour, or face a punishment. Previous fines have included calling up your club director of rugby in front of the entire squad to demand the captaincy next season. At matches, Bil sits on the touchline — and he even has his own passport!