WE’VE seen and heard so much of it, so many times: Ian McGeechan’s “No words, just a look” speech; Jim Telfer’s mastery of profanity; the prototype-Trumpian boorishness of the South African rugby boss Louis Luyt; the heroic humanity of Dr James Robson in his dealings with players broken in both body and spirit. 
Yet a just-published book by Tom English and Peter Burns – This Is Your Everest: The Lions, The Springboks and the Epic Tour of 1997 – finds something fresh to say about that most captivating of modern rugby adventures, with the main protagonists making an old story new by telling...