Manager Gerald Davies heralds Jason Leonard as a player who had what it took to bring much-needed unity to touring party. David Hands writes in The Times.
"If he says it once, he says it 20 times: “team spirit” is what Gerald Davies seeks in the 2009 Lions - the very quality that the past two tour parties so conspicuously failed to muster. Make no mistake, the 2001 Lions coached by Graham Henry in Australia and their successors, coached by Sir Clive Woodward in New Zealand four years later, wanted to win, but, for differing reasons, the coherence of the party was undermined.
"It sounds so simple. Surely any group of players can achieve that. But as the 2009 management group gather at lunchtime today in a Heathrow hotel to finalise the details of the playing party that will be named tomorrow to tour South Africa, they will be seeking those individuals who, by their attitude as well as their playing ability, will make a difference."
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