Following the Lions’ latest tour of Australia got me thinking. What if us southerners teamed up in something with, say, New Zealand, South Africa, Indonesia, Fiji, etc? Would we be as passionate as the Lions’ supporters are? Who would we play? Maybe that’s the answer to the whole multi-national pride thing?

Take the European team in the Ryder Cup as an example. As my colleague next to me, Jeff Centenera, has just suggested as I write this bog post, golfers representing the Euros in the Ryder Cup are bound by one thing - anti-Americanism. Apart from the obvious worldwide benefits of a harmonious planet, why else should/would Spaniards and Germans and Swedes care for one another?

Rugby is governed multi-nationally, with SANZAR looking after things on the Four Nations front, but wouldn’t it be great if one day we saw a SANZAR rep team take on the British and Irish Lions? Just some fruity and loopy food for thought as you’re sitting there on Saturday night waiting for the now-traditional last-minute winning penalty kick …