One of the abiding memories from the last visit of the British and Irish Lions to these shores was the sheer size of the red army that descended on these parts in 2009.
Ahead of kick-off in the opening Test at Kings Park‚ visiting fans almost to a man and woman‚ dressed in a Lions’ jersey carefully‚ made their way up the tight and steep top tier of the eastern stand before inching sideways to their designated seats.
Slowly but inexorably they all made it to their destination in a mass movement not dissimilar to the annual red crab migration on Christmas Island.
It is a spectacle South Africans are unlikely to witness this year.
They won’t see Lions chasing the Springboks either as increasingly the tidings from the north seem to…