SOUTH AFRICA seem bound to slaughter the 2009 Lions. Functional at best against Wales, an unimaginative effort in Edinburgh, before a display last weekend so charged with energy they could have lit the West End lights and kept them blazing until Christmas on the power they generated. England were, admittedly, awful but there was something awesome in the crackling power of the Springboks, from the thumping impact of the front row in the tackle through to the surging dynamism of the wings at the breakdown. A savage message of intent was left at Twickenham.

South Africa are expected to emulate New Zealand, who crushed the hopes of the 2005 Lions and the hubris of their manager and his political sidekick, whose attempts to spin sport saw his reputation sink to the bottom of the Tasman. Sir Clive Woodward had shades of Alastair Campbell’s boss. Neither was one for respecting history; they wanted to remake it. The Lions were going to be bigger, richer and better organised. They were going to batter the poor inhabitants of New Zealand and their fading traditions. No rugby man could have shed a tear for their comeuppance.

Ian McGeechan is a different creature. He and Gerald Davies respect the old ways. The 2009 Lions tour will not make the mistakes of the previous one. It will acknowledge the underdog status of this and, through history, nearly all Lions teams. The battering of the northern hemisphere in the past month is a reminder of the traditional balance of power and just why the British and Irish, New Zealand and South African supporters love the Lions. Individual victories against the traditional giants of the game are rare; Clive Woodward’s great England team bucked the trend but the mould remained unbroken and South Africa are back to beating England, Wales and Scotland.

Individually we have a history of second-rate status while collectively, as Lions, we can boast four measly series wins in 40 years. The southern-hemisphere teams love the Lions for this reason; they are good enough to offer better opposition than any of their four component parts but rarely good enough to win. From the northern perspective the tours are all the more appealing for their quixotic nature. Tilting at windmills comes more naturally than boasting from on high.

So here’s an early Christmas cheer for South Africa, for doing the decent things, for winning all their matches and finishing with a flourish, for being the current world champions, as they were in 1997, and emphasising the seeming hopelessness of next year’s cause.

There are lessons to be learnt, however, and should the Lions management pay them due heed, who knows, our Spanish knights might just draw giant’s blood.

The first lesson is going to cause something akin to civil war in this paper’s rugby pages. Stephen Jones’s diagnosis of the overwhelming gulf between the hemispheres has centred on the sheer size of the South Africans and their TriNations friends; as a diagnosis it is solid. But if the Lions believe they should select our biggest blokes and beat up the South African scrum and breakdown, defeat looms as surely as it did in New Zealand.

This month has revealed the paucity of British and Irish behemoths. Bulk up big men into giants too hastily and the result is to diminish the speed and subtlety that made Ryan Jones such an outstanding player, when he was smaller. We do not have opensides like Schalk Burger or hookers like Bismarck Du Plessis. This autumn should convince the management that the best means of confronting them is to counter those strengths rather than field a second-rate imitation.

In 1997, the masterstroke was to select those pocket battleships from Scotland and Ireland, Tom Smith and Paul Wallace, when everybody was certain the Lions would opt for the more renowned scrum skills of the English props, Jason Leonard and Graham Rowntree. The smaller men never let the vast South African front row compete on their terms. On this tour the original thought could be to opt for the football skills of Lee Mears and Matt Stevens and to hell with the consequences (perceived or otherwise) at the scrum. Australia have long shown that maximising the cunning of the brain is as vital as brawn in managing at the scrum. Mears was superb against the Springboks, constantly keeping the ball alive. He and his Bath sidekick can play the unloading game as well as any and that plays away from the strength of South Africa at the breakdown.

The most glaring lesson from the autumn is that we cannot outmuscle South Africa; the task for the coaches is to out-think them.

How the Lions should line up in South Africa

DALLAGLIO’S SELECTION

15 Rob Kearney (Ireland) 14 Paul Sackey (England) 13 Brian O’Driscoll (Ireland) 12 Riki Flutey (England) 11 Shane Williams (Wales) 10 Ronan O’Gara (Ireland) 9 Harry Ellis (England) 8 Andy Powell (Wales) 7 Martyn Williams (Wales) 6 James Haskell (England) 5 Simon Shaw (England) 4 Paul O’Connell (Ireland) 3 Euan Murray (Scotland) 2 Jerry Flannery (Ireland) 1 Gethin Jenkins (Wales)

STUART BARNES’S SELECTION

15 Lee Byrne (Wales) 14 Rob Kearney (Ireland) 13 Brian O’Driscoll (Ireland) 12 Gavin Henson (Wales) 11 Shane Williams (Wales) 10 Danny Cipriani (England) 9 Mike Blair (Scotland) 8 David Wallace (Ireland) 7 John Barclay (Scotland) 6 James Haskell (England) 5 Nathan Hines (Scotland) 4 Paul O’Connell (Ireland) 3 Matt Stevens (England) 2 Lee Mears (England) 1 Gethin Jenkins (Wales)

STEPHEN JONES’S SELECTION

15 Lee Byrne (Wales) 14 Luke Fitzgerald (Ireland) 13 Brian O’Driscoll (Ireland) 12 Gavin Henson (Wales) 11 Shane Williams (Wales) 10 James Hook (Wales) 9 Mike Phillips (Wales) 8 Simon Taylor (Scotland) 7 Tom Rees (England) 6 James Haskell (England) 5 Alun Wyn Jones (Wales) 4 Paul O’Connell (Ireland) 3 Euan Murray (Scotland) 2 Ross Ford (Scotland) 1 Andrew Sheridan (England)