Rugby/ Lions squad: Yes, we are all Lions now went the mantra in the Hilton Hotel at Heathrow Airport yesterday when the 44-man squad was revealed for this summer's 11-match, six-week odyssey to New Zealand.
Yet invariably one of the first number counts being totted up in the darkened, packed Concorde Suite, where the names were unveiled in a stylish, modernistic Sky Sports video for TV consumption, was those representing each of the four home unions.
England, in keeping with modern times, predictably dominate the squad's make-up with 20 players, hardly surprising given Clive Woodward was always likely to prefer some of his proven World Cup winners in tight calls. This was hardly indicative of their fourth position in the recently completed Six Nations, if more so of their undoubtedly greater strength in depth.
To the slight annoyance of their attending media corps, Wales, the Grand Slam winners, emerged with half that total. Ireland, who finished third, had to be satisfied with a haul of 11, which eclipses the previous high of nine when the party for the 1983 tour to New Zealand was initially announced.
These things are relative of course, and this year's Lions squad is easily the most numerous, but even so a tally of 11 Irish players was about as much as could realistically have been hoped for in the weeks leading up to yesterday's announcement.
In addition to the prominent roles of Eddie O'Sullivan and Mike Ford on the coaching ticket, Brian O'Driscoll will also become Ireland's 10th Lions captain, the first since Ciarán Fitzgerald led the 1983 tourists, and the first from Blackrock.
The other Irish players who will be boarding the plane to Auckland via Heathrow and Singapore at the end of May are John Hayes, Shane Byrne, Malcolm O'Kelly, Paul O'Connell, Donncha O'Callaghan, Ronan O'Gara, Gordon D'Arcy, Shane Horgan and Denis Hickie.
"I'd have to say it's great for the 11 guys who've been selected and there's a couple of guys who didn't make it in very tight calls," commented O'Sullivan in reference to Simon Easterby, Peter Stringer and David Humphreys particularly.
"At the end of the day, I think it's a good representation. I think it does defy the portents of doom and the scaremongering after the Six Nations that suddenly Ireland had lost a couple of games and would pay a heavy price. I think this proves that the squad was picked on experience and the quality of the players, and I think it's a good reflection of the strength of the four unions at the moment."
O'Driscoll - whose winning ratio of 17-5, or 77 per cent, is easily the best of any Irish captain - reckons he is considerably more comfortable in dealing with the media compared to when he was first installed against Australia in 2002. His leadership on the field, he admitted, "comes more naturally".
He anticipated being involved in the selection process with Woodward and the Lions' coaches for what he says will be "without a shadow of a doubt", the most intensive rugby experience of his career.
The poor old Scots are granted only three places (Gordon Bulloch, Simon Taylor and Chris Cusiter) in the 44-man squad, either a reflection of Ian McGeechan's bargaining powers or, perhaps more realistically, a telling commentary on the current qualities of their playing pool. Jason White, their big-hittijng, hard-running, tough-as-teak backrow, is probably the unluckiest of all to miss out.
There was also a general feeling that Mark Cueto, the in-form and prolific Sale and England winger, was unfortunate to miss the cut, although Hickie is far more proven at Test level and it's hard not to be thrilled for the Leinster and Irish winger bearing in mind how he was overlooked four years ago for the likes of Daffyd James, Ben Cohen and Tyrone Howe.
Perhaps in part as a sop to the Celts, and especially the Welsh and the Scots, Woodward declared: "Like everyone else in the world, I'm always constantly picking my Test team. If we were playing this weekend the majority of the starting XV would clearly come from Wales and Ireland, with two players from England and one from Scotland. But people should not read too much into the national make-up of the squad which, incidentally, is very similar to that of the last two Lions' tours."
Predictably, nothing raised more eyebrows or more discussion among the majority of the media than the apparent omission of Jonny Wilkinson, although Woodward dropped the broadest of hints that the English outhalf will be added to the squad before its departure if he can prove his fitness in the intervening weeks with Newcastle.
Significantly too, Woodward has picked only three outhalves (O'Gara, Stephen Jones and Charlie Hodgson) and stressed that he had taken this course of action after discussions with Wilkinson himself and the three outhalves named.
By contrast, Woodward held out less hope for two other injured players who, if fit, would have been sure-fire picks, Phil Vickery and Mike Tindall.
Woodward was assuredly correct when asserting that the chosen 44 will never have received a more joyous text message (confirming their selections) in their sporting careers.
"From this moment the 44 chosen Lions cease to be English, Welsh, Scottish or Irish. They are Lions, part of the greatest rugby touring name in the world. Four nations, the best of the best to the power, coming together to give us the best chance of victory and creating history."
He cited the Lions' fairly abysmal record in New Zealand especially, of just six wins in 35 Tests since 1888, with only one Test series win in 11 attempts.
"If we win the Test series that will in my view be an achievement to match any other," Woodward said of his playing and World Cup-winning coaching career to date. "And I mean any other."
