It was finally here. After all the hype, and efforts in getting tickets we were finally on our way. It was Friday night, and I met up with my tour roommate, Will Davies in the Sydney airport bar. Already the Lions shirts were dotted around. Just as we entered the plane, I got a text message from my lady. "Look in the back of wallet". And what did I find? A cut-out picture of my princess. Judging by the smile on Davies' face this gave him more satisfaction than it gave me.

Once in Brisbane and checked into the hotel, we headed to one of Brisbane's rocking bars, the 'Rowers', which was shite but it served cheap beer. There we met up with Kelse, Rimmer and Debere, so plenty of shots were in order. About 10 minutes later it appeared that our Oundle representative, Mr Davies was AWOL. I headed to the toilets to find he was being escorted out by a rather large bouncer. when I quizzed the bouncer, he informed me Davies was caught puking in the toilets, a quick goodbye to the lads, and we were off to the casino (more of a village hall actually). It transpired that this was the first leg of the now infamous Davies double…

the morning of the game we all met up in the town square, all wearing our lions shirts with pride bar mr Rimmer who decided to wear the blue/white of the super seagulls ‘to get on telly!’. it was here that the drinking commenced. moulding started the barrage of abuse by informing the group of Davies being thrown out for puking, which he kept denying. Davies' response was to tell everyone of my girlfriend's pic, which surprisingly the group decided to jump on. Throughout the course of the afternoon, an excess ticket created a bit of side activity and the market price was established to be about 250-350 dollars. In the shrewdest fashion, Debere and Rimmer managed to sell it for 26 bucks – this time next year, Rodders…

BBC TV camera crews came and went; desperate fans seeking tickets came and went; hundreds of pints of Kilkenny came and went; but the Lobs on tour kicked on! The Sydney vs Melbourne drinking race was brought on – Kelsey vs Brown (surprisingly neither Rimmer nor Moulding were involved!) which saw a fantastic two and a half second effort from both leaving honours even. Alot more drinking ensued then it was off to the game.

it was brilliant. A sea of red. Where were the Aussies? Did they already know that their team was to be humbled. Obviously. Within 2 minutes Robinson scored the first try, and my new, full pint was all over my trousers. But I didn't care as spanking the Aussies in their own backyard outweighed everything.

After the game, we had to walk back into the city, as there was no chance of getting a taxi. Amongst, the thousands leaving the stadium we all got split up. It took over an hour to get back, and I thought I would change my trousers before heading to the pub to meet the lads. Once in the hotel, the replay of the game came on the TV. I thought I would watch the first 5 minutes to see Robinson's try. Next minute I'm alseep, and it's 8am in the morning, and Davies is walking into the room looking shit-faced.

Grifla interjects: "So what did happen Saturday night? If you were Moulding then it was time to go to bed. If you were male than it was on to Dooleys. It is all a bit of a blur to be honest! There was lots of spoof; lots of drinking; and I can’t really remember a lot else. My last memory was Davies polishing off three vodka and tonics in one go and subsequently being ejected (for no reason of course!) – that famous Davies double… He would have you think that he lasted until 8.30am. The truth? Found outside a kebab shop a dribbling wreck shortly after ejection in a helpless state by Earl and being put on their sofa.

Final little story for the evening was the phone call we got from the caretaker that somebody was outside our apartment block trying to get in but couldn’t – it was Kelsey."

My mobile was ringing hot that morning. Alex Kelsey, thought it was Christmas, he demanded that I be at the pub by 12 noon. I sheepishly turned up, where the lads rolled around in fits of laughter. Kelsey couldn't even look at me with out laughing. I couldn't even speak. Obviously I can't really write about what happened that Sat night. The only highlight was Davies (again) and Kelsey were ejected from the same bar for being too drunk. I still had 1 hour before my flight, so the guys felt it was there duty to ruin me. There I was sipping on my beer when Debere presented me with 2 shots of Whisky. 3 more followed, and another beer, before I departed for the airport. At the airport, we were lucky to find the Aussie Rugby team. Now quite merry, I pointed out to them that they should be in arrivals rather than departures, as they didn't show up last night. Davies quickly escorted me to our plane. Just as I was about to board, I hear someone shouting 'stop that man'. It was Kelsey running with one more shot for me to down. The Ansett ground crew were not impressed. Nor was I.

Grifla again: "At this point Moulding was starting to get a bit lively and proceeded to make a silly bet with Rimmer for a double whisky – needless to say he lost that as well – to be settled at 9pm in the Kirribilli Hotel. This then provided the motivation for the last spontaneous leg of a monumental weekend which did not finish until 3am Sunday night. Four days rest now – and then Melbourne – BRING IT ON and no discussion necessary on the Early runner for the awards – Moulding is very there for Tour Bore and Tour Nutc, Davies has the lofty title of Tour Guide and roll on leg 2 and the treble – TIGER TIM, THE LION KINGS AND THE ASHES – what a weekend this will be!"