By 1971 no Lions team had ever defeated the All Blacks in a Test series.
Since 1904, six Lions sides had travelled to New Zealand and all had
returned home bruised, battered and beaten. But the 1971 tour party was
different. It was full of young, ambitious and outrageously talented
players who would all go on to carve their names into the annals of
sporting history during a golden period in British and Irish rugby. And
at their centre was Carwyn Jones - an intelligent, sensitive rugby
mastermind who would lead his team into the game's hardest playing arena
while facing a ferocious, tragic battle in his personal life, all in
pursuit of a seemingly impossible dream.
Up against them was an All Blacks team filled with legends in the game
in the likes of Colin Meads, Brian Lochore, Ian Kirkpatrick, Sid Going
and Bryan Williams. But as the Lions swept through the provinces,
lighting up the rugby fields of New Zealand the pressure began to mount
on the home players in a manner never seen before. As the Test series
loomed, it became clear that a clash that would echo through the ages
was about to unfold. And at its conclusion, it was obvious to all that
rugby would never be the same again.