Vocal sea of red prove rugby still has its romance, says Lions legend John Taylor

It was Ian McGeechan, long before he was knighted, who said one of the most difficult things you have to come to terms with as a Lions' coach is realising that you will never see your team play at their best. On a modern Lions' tour there is simply not time to see them fulfil their true potential.
Instead you have to get them playing as well as possible – to develop a style of play and put together combinations in record time and hope it is good enough. Warren Gatland should be hugely proud of the way he was able to develop this Lions' team. Against all the odds they have come away with a very honourable draw in the series – something most people believed was beyond their reach when they left home six weeks ago. Nobody should underestimate the task they faced and the level of achievement.
That they did it against a fired-up New Zealand team on their favourite ground makes it even more special. The All Blacks were determined to avenge last week's defeat in Wellington and played with as much passion as I have ever seen but they simply could not shake-off an equally determined Lions team – it was an epic Test match.
I am sure the New Zealand critics will point to the inexperience in midfield and cite the number of handling mistakes in that area when the All Blacks were in the ascendancy in the first half as the main reason for failing to put the game away, but the way the Lions stuck to their task while under immense pressure says a lot about the way they have developed as a team and they deserved their share of the spoils.
New Zealand almost scored twice in the first 10 minutes – Julian Savea couldn't quite hold on to Jordie Barrett's pass with the line beckoning and then Jonathan Davies caught Ngani Laumape from behind against all the odds to save again – but when Laumape did cross for a try after Jordie Barrett deflected his brother's kick into his path I was worried the dam had burst.
Savea was almost over again but Farrell's boot kept the Lions in touch until Jordie Barrett finished a typical sweeping All Black move just before half-time.
Would the Lions buckle? Not a bit of it – they used the break to regroup and came out determined to take the game to New Zealand. When Jerome Kaino was sin-binned it was suddenly the All Blacks who looked as if they might crack under the pressure. And although the Lions never got their noses in front it would have been too cruel if that final offside had not been deemed accidental.
Once again the Lions' fans cheered their heroes to the rafters. The sheer number of fans and the way they got behind the team make the Barmy Army sound boringly sane by comparison.
Eden Park felt more like the Lions' home stadium than the impregnable New Zealand fortress it has been for the last 23 years. The All Blacks' promotion machine went into overdrive to try to counter the Lions effect but to no avail. They are simply not great cheerleaders or followers and there is obviously no tradition of choral singing.
Tutira Mai, Tatou, Tatou e – the song they have tried to turn into a singalong anthem is pleasant enough – with a typically melodic Maori/Polynesian feel – but it is simply too bland to be inspiring and as soon as it began the ‘Lions Lions' chant drowned it out completely.
The Lions' supporters were creating new songs as they went along. Last week Only one Maro Itoje rang out around the stands and this week it was Tadhg Furlong's turn. Ben Kay, England's World Cup winning lock, started it off at a supporters' party in the Cloud, a huge hospitality facility in the harbour area that had been taken over by the official Lions' Supporters Tour. Within ten minutes an estimated 4,000 fans had it off pat and last night it was ringing around Eden Park.
To the tune of the old Doris Day hit, Que Sera, Sera, it goes: Tadhg Furlong, Furlong – he's big and he's fast and he's strong (at least that's the clean version) – he's taking the All Blacks on – Tadhg Furlong, Furlong.
You have to believe the singing gave them a huge lift when the All Blacks were threatening to run riot. An hour after the match the New Zealand fans were long gone but thousands in red were still singing.
As for questions about the future of Lions' Tours. Surely, they have now been completely laid to rest. Some people forecast they would be a casualty of the professional era but they remain as popular with the players as they were in my time. Sam Warburton even went as far as to call playing on a Lions' tour, ‘the pinnacle of a British and Irish player's career'.
I'm not sure about that – winning a World Cup would come first on my bucket list if I were playing now – but it is a wonderful little bit of tradition that is definitely worth nurturing.
To that end the Four Home Unions need to make sure they organise things so that Lions' tours are not squeezed any further. They are earning £6 million (£1,500,000 each from this tour) so they must make arrangements to compensate the clubs accordingly so there is no problem with the release of players.
The proposal to limit future tours to eight games is a nonsense. Even this team could not possibly have gelled in time to share the series if they had had two fewer matches. There is actually a very good case for extending the tour to 12 matches.
As I finish this the fans are still singing their hearts out after the greatest trip of their lives – there is still some romance in rugby and we must make sure we never allow it to die.
JOHN TAYLOR