Telfer recalls the rousing speech that helped his heroes reach their Everest

JIM TELFER’S ‘Everest’ speech on the morning of the first Lions Test against South Africa in 1997 remains one of the greatest motivational talks in sporting history. In a never-to-be-forgotten address that was captured on camera, he called on a forward pack including stalwarts like Martin Johnson, Lawrence Dallaglio and Tom Smith to reach their own summit against the then world champions. His short, sharp message has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on the Lions social-media channel alone, and tens of thousands have seen it on the documentary

Living With The Lions.

So what was going through Telfer’s head when he spoke those famous words 23 years ago this week (June 21)? The Scottish rugby legend, now 80 and shielding at his home in Galashiels, has finally revealed all in an exclusive interview with

Sportsmail. ‘From the start of the tour, a lot of us had been mic’d up and there was usually a film crew hovering about in the background every day as they were making a documentary,’ said Telfer. ‘To begin with, I was conscious of them being there and being mic’d up. ‘But I think there were eight games before the first Test so, by the time I entered the team room that morning to give my final talk to the forwards, the documentary folk had become part of the furniture, if you like. ‘I had been mic’d up first thing again that morning and forgotten all about it when I entered the room.’ When he did so, he was not only carrying some notes for his speech but an orange fishing net that he proceeded to put over a circle of chairs at the back of the room. ‘There was a point to the fishing net,’ he said. ‘When I was coaching with Scotland, it had been brought into Murrayfield by Richie Dixon (former Scotland head coach) from a fishing boat that trawled up and down the east coast. ‘With the Scotland team in training, some people would hold the net either side or posts would hold it up and the players had to get down below the fishing nets to realise how low they had to get down in a game going into the scrum, tackling, driving, things like that. ‘I wanted to remind the Lions forwards up to the final moment that they had to stay low, stay very low against South Africa, so that is why I put the net over the chairs. I always believed proper body position was fundamental in forward play, so I told them to take a close look