By PAUL REES

There has been little cheer for rugby in Australia in recent years, but the prospect of a Lions tour is always enough for the glass-half-empty brigade to imagine it full to the point of overflowing.
The itinerary for the nine-match tour in 2025 was announced last week. It will be self-contained with no stop-off en route by the tourists to visit one of the South Seas islands, or a start in Hong Kong as they did before their last trip to Australia in 2013.
That tour was hugely significant for the Lions whose future was coming under threat following the unsuccessful and undignifi...