It was the first Lions tour of the professional era but in its itinerary and ethos it still doffed its cap to tradition. The 2-1 series success in South Africa in 1997 was marked by iconic imagery: of Matt Dawson’s scintillating dummy in the first match, Jeremy Guscott’s dramatic dropped goal in the second, Scott Gibbs blasting his way through Os du Randt, Neil Jenkins’s nerveless goalkicking and Martin Johnson, the captain, with a nasty cut under an eye, telling the medics to “stitch me, stitch me”.

It is hard to believe that 12 years have elapsed. Twelve years during which the Springboks have been festering. When the first international of the 2009 series gets under way in Durban tomorrow, Johnson, fresh from his trip to Argentina as England team manager, will have his feet up at home supping a beer. For a couple of hours he will luxuriate in being a fan.

Johnson holds a unique place in Lions history as the only man to captain the touring team twice. “There are a lot of similarities between [1997] and now,” Johnson says. “They have done a pretty good job, they have won all their games. It hasn’t been easy, but then it never is. It wasn’t in ’97. The expectation level, the hype is extraordinary. The good thing about ’97 was that no one really gave us a prayer. It felt like a minnow against a Goliath, and that is a great place to be.

“What is incredible is the enormity of a Lions tour there. It took me aback when I went there, how they were all still talking about 1974 [the Invincibles tour] and seemed to know everything about it.

“It will be the same this time. They have been waiting 12 long years, not only to play the Lions but to avenge their series defeat. Since 1997 some great players have run out for South Africa whose careers have come and gone without playing the Lions. Nobody really remembers a Six Nations or Tri-Nations game from 12 years ago, but everyone remembers the Lions series.

“I played in over 80 Test matches for England and I can’t remember them all, but I recall every minute of every game I played for the Lions because it is the most special rugby a player will ever taste.”

So, can Paul O’Connell’s class of 2009 repeat Johnson’s triumph? “If the Lions can stay with them in the Test match into the last quarter or 15 minutes, then it’s all to play for on a knife edge with a dropped goal or a penalty decision,” Johnson says.

He believes that the series will be very close and will be decided by the bounce of a ball or a referee’s decision. “When we won the first Test [in 1997] there was a crucial period just after half-time when they got ahead and we were hanging on by a thread and they had a try disallowed for a forward pass. If they had scored that . . .”

At that stage South Africa led 16-12. Had Russell Bennett’s try been allowed and converted, the Springboks would have been out of sight at 23-12. Instead they did not score another point as the Lions won 25-16.

“The Lions are massive underdogs because they have to beat the world champions on their own patch,” Johnson says. “It was the same in 1997. We were playing the world champions from 1995. I’d say the current Springboks side is at least as good as the one that won the 1995 World Cup. South Africa will come at the boys hard and if that doesn’t work, they’ll come at them even harder. But there’s more to their game than just their physicality — they are very skilful as well.”

So if it is 1-1 after the first two games, will he head south for the decider as a punter? “I don’t think so,” he says. “It is about these guys now, not about us. You can’t just be a punter, unfortunately. We’ve had our go.”