Alex Payne: 2001, the Lions in Australia

Presenting rugby has always felt a hobby rather than a job, and there have days I will remember forever for the atmosphere and the aftermath - Wasps downing Munster in 2004, Carter’s second test in 2005, England stunning the All Blacks seven years later, Sexton roaring past Northampton, Wilkinson’s farewell and Haskell’s Ashes.

But the Lions has always burned brightest.  The day I will remember above all others was in 2001, the first Lions test against the Wallabies.  At the end of two weeks work experience at Sky in March, I had offered to make the tea as part of the production crew out in Australia that summer.  I spent my student loan getting out there, and freewheeled down the east coast in a battered old banger with a couple of friends.  As well as making a pretty filthy brew, I was supposed to be inputting stats during the game from a truck in the bowels of the stadium - pressing a key every time a tackle was made or a turnover conceded.  

But the technical equipment got caught at customs the day before the game, and never made it to the Gabba.  So with 20 minutes until kick off, I was given a pitch-side pass and told to go and enjoy it.  I will simply never forget walking up one of the vehicle ramps and out into the lights and noise of the stadium, a 21 year old rugby nut, who had screamed himself hoarse at Guscott’s drop goal four years earlier.

Everyone knows the story of the day; the sea of red, Robinson’s try, Dafydd James, Waltzing O’Driscoll and Quinnell’s nodding grin.  And I watched it all in disbelief from the best seat in the house, at the end of the Lions bench.

After the game, I wandered around the pitch for twenty minutes.  I snaffled Lions water bottles and an Australian kicking tee.  It was totally and utterly intoxicating, and lit an ambition I was determined to go after.  12 years later, as the Lions gained a glorious revenge, I enjoyed it from a slightly different seat.  In studio, holding a pretty filthy brew.

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