Jeff Probyn: Lions must have full control and never do a Hartley

As the Lions prepare for the real start to this summer’s much awaited tour, the question is, (money aside) why bother with a run out in Hong Kong? The one thing that is slightly more important than making a packet from the hoards of fans who now follow the Lions for the four Home Unions and their host nation, is the history that has made them the number one brand in Rugby Union.
It is that history that attracts the huge number of fans from across the four Home Unions as all unite with a common aim, which is to beat whichever SANZA team the Lions face.
Australia, with a year of preparation in anticipation of the Lions, will hit the ground running, but with the stuttering play-off end to our season that is now the vogue, it is virtually impossible for the Lions squad to come together early enough for proper preparation time.
That makes the game against the Baa-Baas in Hong Kong not only worthwhile but essential, particularly as the vast majority of the Welsh contingent and potential Test players will get to play an extra game in preparation.
The sad fact is that the Barbarians are no longer the team they were in the amateur days, despite the valiant efforts of their lifetime president Micky Steele-Bodger, but they are still able to field an international squad that can give their opposition a tough time.
As the Lions move on to Australia they will have to show courage, commitment, consistency and control, if they are to win the series.
Courage on tour will take many forms, particularly because there will be times when things will go wrong and the players will come under the intense scrutiny of the Australian media (and probably our own) who will be looking to expose any slip-ups either on or off the field.
It is then that the management and players must show a commitment to each other that says we are in this together and will support each other as a squad no matter what disappointments come our way.
There will be disappointments for at least half the squad every time the midweek side are named and it will be how those players deal with that disappointment that will shape the attitude and performance of the whole squad, as it is often how the midweek team performs that defines a tour.
If they can achieve consistency in style and performance both on and off the field they could take the Lions to the heights needed to guarantee the future of the brand.
Brand is not the way that the players and coaches involved with the historic tours of the past would like the Lions described – but the truth is that with the advent of single country tours the Lions became less and less relevant, only to be reinvented as a cash cow for all because of the enthusiasm of the fans.
The Lions not winning a series since 1997 has raised questions as to whether they should continue, but the numbers that follow them has ensured that not only will they survive but they may even change the way that the season is structured.
The season schedule in Lions years could be altered to give the team a better chance of being competitive because a winning team generates more cash than a losing team which would mean more for all clubs, countries and players.
Now we come to the most important quality they need and that is control – control of all they do and all they face.
How Warren Gatland controls his squad and how that plays out over the next few weeks will make for fascinating viewing and I, for one, will bet that the tour diaries will be best sellers for years to come.
Ultimately, it will be about how the players control themselves and if the teams self discipline on and off the field will be enough to ensure success without any hiccups, unlike last weekend’s Premiership final.
The sending off of Dylan Hartley plumbs new depths in terms of the Premiership and his professional career.
The first person to be sent off in a Premiership final is not an accolade he will be proud of, particularly as it cost Northampton any chance of winning the title and, despite Jim Mallinder’s support, he will know that he has let his team down.
Sadly this was not the first occasion; he has now received bans totalling 47 weeks out of a 180 week professional career and I have to say that, in my opinion, he is lucky to have got away with just 47 weeks.
Any player can get banned and many have (including me) but it is what you get sent off for that is telling.
I was sent off three times for punching a player in retaliation, not something I am proud of but it happened in my early career as a young player when, being slightly better than some of the older
players I came up against, they would hit me expecting to intimidate me. Instead I defended myself and fought back.
Hartley has been banned for gouging, biting, punching and now, abusing a match official.
All rugby players have a moral code of sorts and depending on circumstances, punching is something that it is accepted will happen from time to time. However, gouging and biting are unforgivable in the unwritten moral code of the game.
Abusing officials is not something that is even on the radar during a game because of the possibility of at least conceding an extra 10 yards, let alone a card of any colour.
A slip of the tongue has cost Hartley a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and is something he will regret for the rest of his life. I only hope that he has finally learned from his mistakes and stops wasting his talents.