You can be legends if you stop the All Blacks pulling a fast one

AS a British and Irish Lion you have to believe nothing is impossible, that whoever the opposition the sum of your parts can add up to something extraordinary.

Take my first tour to South Africa in 1997. They were world champions, on paper bigger and better. In the flesh they were too. Stronger, more explosive, more talented.

In the cold light of day you thought, ‘How the hell are we going to beat them?’ But we did. Tactically we got it spot on.

We won the first Test and took the series.

Same again on my second tour, in Australia four years later. By then they were the world champs and, like the Kiwis now, assumed we could play only one way.

Mistake. We found a way to surprise them and again won the opener.

In Auckland today the Lions must tap into this spirit, rather than dwell on what happened on my last tour, in New Zealand 12 years ago.

That was the first Test in which Brian O’Driscoll and Richard Hill suffered tour-ending injuries. There was a rush of All Blacks’ pressure and tries, our heads went down, their chests puffed out.

It can happen in New Zealand if you lose concentration for a moment. No team turns defence into a try faster than the All Blacks. No team is harder to catch once they get away. So the Lions must be on it from start to finish.

The All Blacks get three points, they have to score next. Back to basics – keep hold of the pill, get in the right areas, stay on the right side of the ref.

Let the Kiwis get their tails up and they’re going to build on what they did last week against Samoa – 12 tries, 78 unanswered points. But impose a different game on them – flawless set-piece, pressure on lineouts and kick-offs, suffocating defence and discipline – and it will be a totally different ball game.

To do that will require 80 minutes spent concentrating for every single second.

It will test these players mentally like they’ve never been tested before.

Conor Murray has to step up and play the game of his life. Keep the Lions going forward with on-the-money box kicking which enables the chasers to pin the All Blacks in their own half.

Put them on the back foot, execute at the set-piece and the Lions are in a contest.

Allow them to play, to roam through the phases looking for the mismatch and the Lions won’t be.

These players can become legends by winning today in a place where the All Blacks have not lost since 1994. And I think they can – by two points.

But nothing that notable comes without a fight. As somebody once said, this is your Everest boys.

All Blacks prop Moody, a former wrestling bronze medallist at the junior Commonwealth Games, is likely to have his hands full with Lions tighthead Furlong.

Both players are in the relatively early stages of their international careers.

Moody has 24 caps compared with Furlong’s 18 but the Irishman looks to be a much stronger player and could help give the Lions scrum dominance as they look to build on some impressive set-piece performances during the New Zealand tour.

Furlong has a burgeoning reputation that might take another significant step this weekend.

New Zealand are boosted by the return to action of their 97 times-capped skipper, who has not played for eight weeks after breaking his thumb while on Super Rugby duty with the Crusaders.

Read’s world-class quality is well documented but his No.8 rival Faletau has arguably been the Lions’ best player on the tour so far.

Incredibly consistent and strong in all areas of his game, the Wales star is in majestic form – and is likely to play a major role as the Lions target a first victory over the All Blacks since 1993.