RUGBY MATTERS
BRENDAN GALLAGHER
A weekly look at the game’s other talking points

Was it Homer or Robbie Burns – it’s usually one or the other on these occasions – who observed that ‘there’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip’. It’s an old adage that often comes to mind when the Lions announce their squad for their forthcoming tour, which is precisely what is happening this Thursday.
It invariably heralds a torturous period. You have earned the ultimate rugby accolade for a British and Irish player. You are ‘on the plane’ f...