If there has been a defeat more painful, then show me it. If there have been more brutal, more epic games, on a stage of greater magnitude, then let us begin the debate. For sure, in getting on for two decades of covering sport, I cannot recall a group of players more psychologically shattered by the cruelty of a ball game.

Desolation ruled in the Lions’ dressing room afterwards. Ian McGeechan gave an address but otherwise there was near silence. As Simon Shaw, the man of the match, said: “Geech told us we should all be proud of ourselves, but nothing really consoles you after a game like that.”

Post-match interviews are invariably a torment for the losing side, but in the bowels of Loftus Versfeld on Saturday evening, Jamie Heaslip was so emotionally washed up that he punctuated every word with a heaving sigh of disappointment, an intelligent man with an eye on history grasping in vain for a sequence of words that would come close to explaining his predicament.

“Lots of guys,” he said — sigh, sigh — “have gone before you in that jersey,” — sigh, sigh — “and a lot of guys will follow,” — sigh, sigh. “To come so close. . .” He broke off, sighed and left the sentence incomplete.

It is worth recalling here that eight years ago, Ben Cohen returned from tour saying that he had sampled the Lions and did not care much for it. And that, four years ago, no one cared much for the Lions, period.

But while the priority here was to win the series, and second-best would have been to push it into a decider at Coca-Cola Park, these Lions have achieved something else, not as satisfying on the scoreboard but deeply significant nevertheless. They lost the series but have won their honour back.

Before they came to South Africa, the Lions had lost five internationals on the bounce, and to go zip and seven might have raised serious questions about the very future. Yet so titanic have been the past two Saturdays that the opposite seems to have happened. The romance of the Lions is alive: indeed the heart is beating as quick as ever.

That certainly has been the gospel according to McGeechan ever since Morné Steyn cold-bloodedly snuffed out all remaining hope. Previously, neither he nor Gerald Davies had been too keen to talk publicly in such a vein, but they have clearly felt a weight of responsibility not just for this tour but for the future, too. And yesterday morning, McGeechan, at an emotional extreme himself, insisted that they had secured it.

“There’s been a lot of credibility brought back to the Lions,” he said. “People ask: are the Lions valuable? You don’t get Test matches like that. The rugby we played has been outstanding. I think we’ve seen some of the best rugby — ever. To me and other people, the Lions have just got bigger. For the players, this is what they want to do. Speak to any of the players here on tour — this is where they want to be, this is the shirt they want to wear.”

Likewise, at the previous evening’s press conference, when the question had been put to the captain, Paul O’Connell, about whether fear of the whitewash would be the motivation for the third international, before he could answer, McGeechan immediately interjected. “The motivation comes from wearing a Lions jersey,” he said firmly, “and that won’t change.” Fine words, indeed. But the players follow them unswervingly.

Yet while there has been a kind of victory in defeat here in South Africa, the future of the Lions has to depend on more than a mere emotional response. Perhaps the most pertinent note in McGeechan’s entire gospel yesterday was when he said: “Give the Lions a fair crack and your Test series is always going to be very meaningful.” A fair crack. Yes, that would be a fine thing.

From beginning to end, there has been a feeling about these Lions that they have been on the receiving end of one extended stitch-up. We are talking here about everything from preparation time, to the quality of warm-up opposition, to the innovation of eye-gouging as a yellow-card offence instead of red. The challenge of the Lions is massive enough without one and sometimes both arms tied behind their backs.

The demand for change will thus be made as soon as the Lions return. It is standard practice for the Lions management to file a post-tour report to the Four Home Unions Committee and the report from Davies and McGeechan will make strong recommendations primarily that the rugby calendar is revisited in Lions years to give them more weeks together to prepare.

The calendar is already full to bursting, but yesterday McGeechan called for “people who don’t want to make time for the Lions” — a reference to factions in clubs and home unions keen not to lose their players to other commitments — to “understand for the players they represent that they should make it work”.

The demand, for starters, will be for future Lions tours to stretch farther into July so that they are almost nudging the start of the Tri-Nations Series. Expect also for the contract with Australia on the 2013 Lions tour to be more specific on wording that will demand that Wallabies players are fielded in the warm-up matches.

“The two biggest things on the international calendar are the World Cup and Lions tours, and if we could respect that, I think that would help the next coach,” McGeechan said.

The present coach has but one international left and he finishes an astonishing Lions career with a losing series. Time will tell, but his legacy must be that he has given the Lions new life.