Another British and Irish Lions tour has come to an end.
It has been a full-on five weeks and in the end, the Lions roared for the first time since 1997, putting on a dominant display in the third test to claim a 2-1 test series victory over Australia.
The test series at least, had its moments. It will be remembered for its closeness going into the final test, for the controversial selections before this test and for the inspired performance that followed.
But there is a sour taste that lingers regarding the tour as a whole. Along with the World Cup, a Lions tour rates as the pinnacle of rugby. There is an enormous amount of history in the side that has made their tours somewhat legendary. This time around though, that feeling was not there.
The main problem was that the Australians did not seem to be taking the tour seriously. Sure, they undoubtedly took the test series seriously, but a Lions tour is so much more than this.
Traditionally each match is a huge game, in most cases the biggest any of the players from the hosting teams will play in their lives. To beat the Lions is to make a mark in history. They are performances that will live on forever.
We still talk about the 1993 Otago team that got up and beat the Lions by 13 the week before the All Blacks beat them by just two in the first test.
Wins like these hold enormous significance to the unions, or in the case of the most recent tour, the franchises. It perhaps the biggest achievement in rugby aside from winning a World Cup.
While on this tour the Brumbies ground out a memorable win and the Reds pushed them close with a display of running rugby, for the most part these games were not taken seriously.
In the first game, the Force played a third-string side, electing to rest their top players for the Super 15 game in the weekend. What a horrible show of disrespect this was. The one chance these players have to have a crack at the Lions and they were rested for a more or less meaningless game against the Waratahs in the weekend.
Win or lose, next to no-one is going to remember the result of the Super 15 game in a year's time. But if a team were able to upset the Lions, or even push them close, the game would live on forever.
Even the teams that did play the best they had available did not field their Wallabies - this was not their fault, as the Wallabies management had decided they did not want their players in these games.
But you have to wonder why, particularly in the earlier games when there was plenty of time to rest before the first test. Undoubtedly they felt they were helping the chances for a test series win. This goes back to the point that they were taking the test series seriously while neglecting the significance of the overall tour.
Perhaps the Reds could have gone the whole way and caused an upset had they had the likes of Will Genia, Liam Gill and James Horwill playing.
Maybe even the Waratahs could have caused a boil-over with Israel Folau, Michael Hooper and Adam Ashley-Cooper. But we will never know. And that is a shame, we were robbed of what has traditionally been one of the best spectacles of a Lions tour.
In four years the Lions will tour New Zealand. The tour has potential to be the biggest event in the country since the Rugby World Cup, but only will be if it is done justice and is given the respect it deserves.
Whether they are playing the Super 15 sides or the provincial teams, you would hope they are playing the best these teams have to offer, including their All Blacks. In doing this, the whole tour is honoured as significant, not just the test series.
Lions tours come around once every four years, heading to each country once in every 12. It is this that makes them memorable and makes you want to get them right, because it is such a long time before you get the chance to do it again.
The tours of 1971 and 1974 are still regarded as two of the greatest ever due to the share number of games they played, the constant competition they were facing from their opposition and of course the way these teams rose to the occasion and played superb rugby.
Many of the great players have their careers defined by tours such as these. The legends of Gareth Edwards, J.P.R. Williams, Willie John McBride, Mike Gibson and so many more remain ever-present in the minds of so many because of these great tours.
We are now at a time where a lot of the population would not know of these tours or the historical significance of the Lions. The more recent tours have not been what they used to be and 2013 was perhaps just taking this to the next level.
Perhaps the World Cup is to blame for this, as it is now seen as the pinnacle of rugby. But there should be a place for both. Things only lose their significance if we let them. By playing second string teams in their midweek games, the Lions are going to lose some of their aura, particularly to someone who has known no different.
It does not have to be this way though and the Lions legacy is worth saving. Treat these games with respect and the legacy will live on, which will make these games something to remember. It really is up to those involved.
On the flip side, it was good to see the Australians grasped the significance of the test series. They must be given credit for that and it was clearly a big deal to them by the time the decider came around. So they got this right.
It was just a shame they missed the mark a bit with the rest of the tour. Soon enough it will be our turn once more, let us hope we can get it right, it may be now or never.
