Thursday evening in Durban, two days before the first Lions international, and Phil Vickery was reminded why being a Lion is his greatest experience in rugby. He had already had his hand shaken and been wished “good luck” by Welshmen, Irishmen and Scots, which is unusual enough in itself. But then he went downstairs in the hotel for a hot chocolate and he heard the noise from the bar: the anthems, Swing Low, Bread of Heaven et al, the whole songbook from the four Lions nations in succession.

“This is a very unique, special opportunity,” he said of the Lions series that starts today.

So he is more nervous about playing South Africa in Durban than he has been in his career. He also says that playing in the first Lions match against Australia in Brisbane eight years ago was “probably my greatest rugby experience”. And this is a man who has won one World Cup and captained England to the final of another.

A hard, West Country prop, Vickery could hardly be more emotional than he is right now. “I’m a proud Englishman,” he said. “But being a Lion is the greatest honour you could have.”

And winning a Lions series, he said, “would be the biggest thing that I could ever be involved in”.

Take it from Vickery, take it from anyone — from Warren Gatland, the forwards coach, who talked yesterday of the “honour” and “privilege” for a Kiwi to be a Lion. His biggest game ever? “I suppose it is,” he said.

Or take it from Ian McGeechan, the head coach. “Whether you’re in your first international season or your tenth, I don’t care what it is,” he said, “If this is your first Lions series, you’re in for something you’ve never experienced.”

Or take it from those thousands tumbling out of Durban airport bedecked in red. The informed view is that 15,000 long-haul visitors will have made it by this afternoon and it would have been double that — positively Brisbane-like — if the economy was feeling as positive as our South African hosts.

In Australia eight years ago, it felt so much as though the stadium was red that the week after the hosts handed out free scarves and hats in the nation’s green and gold to try to balance the colour scheme.

And yet while we revel in the tradition, the grand stage, the occasion, there is no escaping the crescendo of a Lions tour and — by definition — the crash-landing that may await us by tonight.

The statistics are horrible and everyone here knows them. The Lions have lost the past two series and their past five internationals. As a concept, this is sport as romance with an audience whose hearts get continually broken. Take away the romance and the Lions concept in the professional era struggles to work. Will a scratch team ever again vanquish southern- hemisphere opposition?

So it is a whopping and unfair burden, but there is a feeling that the Lions today are playing for more than the result of an international match. If we are heading from Durban into a third consecutive series defeat, then it does not take much to ask: what’s the point?