RUGBY UNION: Keith Wood's extraordinary connection with the 1959 Lions tour

Did what your father Gordon achieved with the Lions in 1959 act as a driving force for you?

I don’t really know. My father died when I was 10 but the presence of the Lions was there always and I have memory of my father in his Lions blazer.

There was a sense of the importance of what that was for him and before I got picked in 1997 I did a piece in the Irish Independent where I mentioned that my father had given everything from his Lions days away and suddenly these things started to drift in.

They were my father’s but he had given to other people so when you see someone give you back the towel from the 1959 tour and they have kept in pristine condition – it’s extraordinary and shows you how much it all means to people.

I have recordings from the four Test matches in 1959 and a load of different photographs, things that he would have found important as he went along and are now important for me as well.

I have a picture of dad with his camera in 1958 that he took on tour with the Lions – I brought that very camera with me in 2001 which I fixed to work.

I took a load of photographs but none of them came out but at least I had a bit of fun with it.

There are different times when you reflect on your career – you rarely do when you are in it – but I remember during the World Cup of 1999, a frantic time for everyone, I had the exact same number of Irish and Lions caps as my father.

That was a poignant moment for me, thinking of something completely different in one of the most pressurized times of my career.

Your connection with the 1959 tour coupled with the new kit launch for 2017 puts the whole thing into context...

There is a history in it – the PR people I have been working with for some time asked me my opinion about the 1959 tour and when I told them of its importance to me they did not know this at all.

[Will Greenwood exclusive: British & Irish Lions tours will always be relevant]

[Canterbury launch 2017 Lions kit for tour of New Zealand]

[A ruined kit on a 33-match tour that took in 800,000 fans - how Canterbury bailed out the Lions 56 years ago]

We had a mad conversation and it breathed new life into the story and I like that idea.

I love the idea of a bit of a throwback and I love the cotton shirts – I am not really built to wear the skin tight ones.

You went on two Lions tours. What was the highlight for you?

Obviously winning in South Africa in 1997. People talk about the joy of winning… I had been kicked in the groin and then tore a groin muscle trying to get out of the way of another boot so could barely move in the last couple of minutes.

But I played on and when the final whistle went and everyone else was jumping around, I had to have a lie down.

I was wrecked anyway and was so relieved it was over because it was so hard.

And I have often said that if I had been with Jim Telfer, who a brilliant coach, technically excellent with us forwards, I would have killed him.

He pushed us to the edge to what he thought he could get out of us.

South Africa need no incentive to be physical. Did you notice the difference between them playing you as an Irishman and you as a Lion?

There is something unusual about it. There is a heightened sense to the whole thing because it’s an amalgamation like the Ryder Cup, something else that doesn’t quite fit into the box.

I remember hitting the first scrum in 1997 and we got knocked back five metres on the hit. That’s a shock to the system, to your pride, to everything.

You are trying to work out how the hell and why did that happen.

But then you bring it in a little bit lower and although you might no win he next scrum, you are not under as much pressure as before.

And then eventually, after a period of about an hour, your fitness is telling and you are beginning to drive them back.

They are all battles within battles, fascinating and fantastic.

You must have to learn so many different ‘aspects’ of your game to cope with playing so many different types of opponent in so many different tournaments?

Every time you get pushed back by somebody, you learn something. All the failures are what you learn from.

It’s how you deal with certain types of pressure that shows what sort of player you and can be.

What makes the Lions different is that you have to get total trust in your two props in three weeks – how they are going to look after you.

You are exposed as a hooker but I was lucky that I had Paul Wallace from Ireland alongside me in 1997 – he was phenomenal along with Tom Smith who although I don’t very often, I’m mad about him.

We had two tours together – he was brilliant and did not give up for a second but never said a word, he was the quietest man of all time – but having not played with him for four years and then teaming up with again in 2001, it was like an old sofa - comfortable.

Is the Lions as relevant as it has always been?

More relevant.

To talk forward you have to talk back in many respects.

In 1997 we were told it was likely to be the last Lions tour because it didn’t seem it would fit into the burgeoning, commercially aggressive professional game if we had not have won.

So that probably would have been the end of it – so that was a lovely, interesting sort of pressure to put on players ahead of a Test series. But we did win so maybe that was the pressure we needed.

For all the things that are sharp and driven, KPIs and are fully focused in terms of professional sport, there is a beauty to have something that does not quite fit into a box.

What’s rare is beautiful and does this fit comfortably into the professional world? It can do because it can pay for itself in a business sense and that’s the harsh reality of the Lions.

But it’s also a huge, heavy, over-a-century body of history, and the idea of the Lions is just cracking. There is no way around that.

To try and get the best players from the two islands and to get players performing is this heightened environment with only three weeks together – to trust a guy in three weeks to hold you up in the scrum when you have been kicking the lard out of him the week before you went on tour – that’s what makes the Lions extraordinary.

The nationalistic thing goes immediately – you become one pretty quickly because you have to. It doesn’t matter where you come from because once you get there you are a Lion and you have to act like one.

You have to put all your tricks out on the table and that’s why the international matches after the Lions tours were unbelievably difficult because we know everything there is to know abut the players we shared that tour with.

On one day I am playing against Jason Leonard, then with him for Harlequins then against him again. That is the nature of sport and as you go up the tier levels.

Emotionally, the highest level is to play four your country – the patriotism and for me pulling on the green jersey – but in terms of a pinnacle in your chosen sport, nothing beats the Lions. Nothing.

It is the best of the best.

Keith Wood was speaking on behalf of Canterbury, Official Apparel Partner of the British & Irish Lions who have marked the announcement with a commemorative re-issue of the 1959 shirt