As a little bit of context: Every 4 years an all star select of the England, Scotland, Ireland & Wales sides is selected to tour one of the Southern hemisphere rugby nations (South Africa, New Zealand or Australia). They tour the country for around 4 weeks, playing local sides until they play a 3 match series against the host nations all star team. It is a fantastic spectacle and requires huge management/ coaching ability to gel the disparate selection of players together for the huge challenge. At the time of this tour (1997) - the British & Irish Lions went to South Africa (the Springboks) - then World Champions.

The game had just turned professional that year (since it was invented up to that point it had been 100% amateur) - since the advent of professionalism the athletes have moved on considerably but the ethos of the game has very much remained. It is a mentally very challenging game - each player must play the full 80 minutes, play attack and defense, it is very physical, combative, tactical and quite technical. You look for athletes and characters that have the ability and character to perform in all of those areas. At the top levels it is a wonderful, mentally demanding sport.

- Shaun P.

No class at BIW today - come out to San Francisco CrossFit if you want to compete in the Throwdown, or just watch and cheer for the home teams.

Scroll down to yesterday's post for details.