And so for the Lions' delectation the first offering of their tour Down Under will be some sacrificial lambs otherwise known as Western Australia? Even a cursory flick over the teamsheets and history makes such talk hard to resist. Primed for the last fortnight, these Lions are hungry.
"That's for you to say, that's not for us to think," counters Keith Wood, repeating the management's mantra of the past few days. "They're going to play above the standard they normally play at, because it's one of the biggest games of their lives."
Nonetheless, the aggregate score from the three previous meetings is 175-6, which rather tells a tale, as does Western Australia's record of just two wins in 32 games against touring sides. These wins came against Canada and the USA. As a further barometer, Ireland won at the WACA ground on the occasion of Keith Wood's first appearance in a green jersey by 648 at the start of the 1994 tour (by popular consent in playing circles, "the last of the great drinking tours".)
Sure the Lions are a "scratch" side per se, who will, technically, be playing together for the first time. Western Australia, though, have only had one warm-up game, beating the British Police 23-10 last week.
Furthermore, by their own admission, no Lions side has ever been fitter or better prepared. And then there's the sheer class divide between the two teams.
"There's a good few Kiwis in there, they must be good," said Graham Henry.
When asked how many Kiwis there are in the team, a Western Australian official admitted "it would be easier to name the Aussies", and duly picked out four. Half the pack and the entire back line hail from New Zealand, and all achieved some form of under-age representative honours in their native country before moving here.
Among the home side's assortment of amateurs or semipros are a labourer, a welder, a joiner, several draftsmen, an engineer, a school teacher, a cabinet maker and a couple of carpenters. One of the latter is Richard Coney, a 26-year-old back rower who spent two years in Ulster playing for Dromore and then Lisburn, where he worked as a night-club bouncer. Included in the State squad for the first time is a former English under-21 prop, Rob Kellam, who played with London Irish last season.
The lack of natives, as such, is indicative of Perth's rapid growth and standing in Australia and of rugby's standing in the region. There were about 250,000 people living in Perth 35 years ago, and now there's 1.3 million, of which 40,000 are Kiwis and 25,000 are South Africans, with an estimated 54 per cent of the State's population coming from Australia.
Many migrate to Western Australia to work in the steel or gold mines, while some come over exclusively to play rugby at club level or, for the chosen few, at State level. For them this is a chance of a lifetime and hence Donal Lenihan has likened this to a traditional old touring game, virtually unique in the modern professional era.
For the more illustrious visiting players the stakes are altogether higher. Phase one was obtaining a seat on board the plane. Phase two was training and putting the playing structures in place. Now comes phase three, challenging for a Test place. "It's a fairly simple process really," says Wood.
"We've got to treat it as a major game, which we will," the captain vowed. "It's the first game of the tour, it's a very, very important game on the tour. It sets the standard for the rest of the tour and we'll be taking this game exceptionally seriously." And it is for that reason, with Test spots to be fought for, there will be no let-up.
Henry cited good communication on the pitch as one of the important benchmarks for the tour opener. "The big thing is that we've got to go into this game and guys have got to talk about the communications both on attack and defence, and people have got to listen. Basically we're looking to get our structure right with the ball and without the ball, and that requires a lot of communication. And if we can do that I'll be pretty happy."
Beyond that, and providing a benchmark of sorts for the rest of the tour, the Lions won't want show their hand too much. After all, no one will watch this game more closely than the Wallaby think-tank.
The team had a run-out at kick-off time yesterday evening, and Donal Lenihan reported the pitch to be in an excellent state, save for some concern about the "creases" in the middle, which prompted the Lions manager to ask the hosts to make "some adjustments". He added: "There are one or two very bare patches which is a particular concern for scrums, but other than that the pitch is excellent."
