LONG READ ‘Lions tours are wonderfully uplifting but the trail of hard luck stories is long and painful'

A penny for Caelan Doris’s thoughts as the final whistle blew in Melbourne and Maro Itoje joined the elite ranks of series-winning Lions captains.

Doris would instinctively have been pleased for his Leinster team-mate Hugo Keenan and all his other provincial colleagues in the squad.

He would have been chuffed too for Bundee Aki and Tadhg Beirne, from his wider Ireland family.

He would only have been human though if he had allowed himself a brief ‘what if’ moment.

But for the serious shoulder injury he picked up the weekend before the squad was named, it could well have been Doris, not Itoje, leading these Lions.

Sport gives generously – witness the euphoric scenes after Keenan’s match-winning try – but it also takes away cruelly.

Whatever else Itoje does in his career, he will always be remembered for his achievement in leading the Lions to victory. His name will forever be bracketed with those of Sam Warburton, Martin Johnson and Finlay Calder – the only other men to have captained the tourists to a series victory in the past 50 years.

Itoje has done a fine job with England and a fabulous one with the Lions. He has led outstandingly with his performances in both Test matches

In the space of a year the questions over whether a thoughtful introvert who makes a point of never swearing would make an international rugby captain have been cast to the four winds.

Itoje has done a fine job with England and a fabulous one with the Lions.

He has led outstandingly with his performances in both Test matches Down Under, turning up the dial in the last quarter with critical interventions when his body must have been screaming for mercy in his 33rd game of a long, long season.

When he was interviewed after an epic Test match and pulsating victory, Itoje’s immediate take was how much more there was to come from the Lions and how they might unlock it in the Third Test.

History made, yes, but bigger history is on Itoje’s horizon. One more push…

If they do pull off the 3-0 win, he will have helped drag the Lions to the promised land.

But there is no reason why Doris, had he been fit, could not have taken them on the same journey.

He captained Ireland to victory over the Wallabies at the Aviva Stadium last November.

It is a series that, frankly, the Lions should win 3-0. And it could just as easily have been Doris doing the leading.

He shares many of the same attributes as Itoje – a calm authority, a thoughtful intellect and a ferocious, follow-me lead – and with this Lions team piling in behind him, could well have proven an equally successful captain in Australia.

These Wallabies, for all their desperation-driven uplift in Melbourne, are no world beaters. The Lions, man for man across the 23, are a better team by some distance.

It is a series that, frankly, the Lions should win 3-0.

And it could just as easily have been Doris doing the leading.

He is only 27. He may well still be in the picture for the next tour of New Zealand in four years’ time and as a captain too, but how many times do the Lions win series against the All Blacks? They have only managed it once in their history.

Tough as it sounds, his best shot has already passed.

Zander Fagerson is another player who must have watched on with mixed feelings. The Scotland tighthead was even closer to the Lions squad than Doris. He was actually named in it by Andy Farrell. But his calf injury took him out before he had the chance to play a game.

Would Fagerson have been on the field at the MCG had he been fit? Debatable. Tadhg Furlong was always going to be Farrell’s Test starter if he could stay fit and Will Stuart has proved himself an admirable finishing force, but Fagerson would have had a shot at the bench.

Sliding doors moments.

There are others who could have/would have/should have been in Australia but for unfortunately timed injuries. Ollie Lawrence was scribbled down in most people’s likely squads before he ruptured his Achilles tendon against Italy.

Might it have been Elliot Daly in the Keenan hero role had he not fractured his forearm against the Queensland Reds?

Two other Englishmen – George Martin and Manny Feyi-Waboso – could also have been on the trip.

Test Lions? Unlikely but you never know. Tours can take on a life of their own.

Not many would have marked down Elliot Daly as a likely Test full-back but he was in the form of his life at the start of the tour. Might it have been the Saracen in the Keenan hero role had he not fractured his forearm against the Queensland Reds? Certainly, Owen Farrell wouldn’t even have been on the tour, never mind the pitch at the end if Daly hadn’t experienced such misfortune.

That is sport though, certainly a contact sport like rugby. Injuries happen and one man’s woe is another man’s joy.

The names of those who were part of the triumph are etched into history; the ones who might have been on the pitch, but weren’t, are quickly washed away.

Luke Cowan-Dickie could have been the finishing hooker on Saturday night but for the concussion that derailed his tour.

Garry Ringrose, likewise, might have been the starting outside centre.

It was warming to hear Huw Jones talk in such generous terms about his midfield rival after the game. Jones said it should have been Ringrose wearing the No 13 jersey, not him, against the Wallabies.

It should. He has been outstanding on the tour, the pick of a very good crop of centres.

We shouldn’t forget those who fell along the wayside but sadly, inevitably we will.

If there were such a thing as a benevolent rugby god, as opposed to the random fork lightning of fate, Ringrose would have been part of the concluding Test in Sydney this weekend.

The decision Ringrose took in pulling himself out of the Second Test because his concussion symptoms had recurred was of such importance to the game itself that he deserved to become a Test Lion simply for making it. It has not worked out like that.

Lions tours, especially winning ones, are wonderfully uplifting but the trail of hard luck stories around them is long and painful too.

We shouldn’t forget those who fell along the wayside but sadly, inevitably we will.