
Maro Itoje knows all about history and is urging his Lions side to embrace their date with destiny at the Colosseum of Australian cricket on Saturday.
The Lions skipper will lead out his side at the MCG, the traditional graveyard of English Ashes hopes, knowing a win will nail the series against the Wallabies with a game to spare.
The tourists have never played a Test match at the 100,024 sporting mecca in Victoria where the last English sporting captain to win was Andrew Strauss nearly 15 years ago.
Itoje has his Lions cap firmly on and has told his side, who won 27-19 in Brisbane last week, to do what Strauss and his cricketers did and rise to the occasion down under.
Itoje, a Grand Slam winner, World Cup finalist and three-time European champion, said: "These sorts of games are the reason why you want to play rugby.
"As a professional athlete, there's always focus to what you do, but not all games are equal. Not all games mean the same thing. And this game, last week's game, these games aren't equal to normal games of rugby. They're special."
But Itoje warned: "When you wear this jersey and represent the Lions you know it comes with huge honour and a sense of responsibility but we know we are not playing a pub team. The Wallabies are a proper team."
The walkway to the Melbourne Cricket Ground is strewn with reminders of sporting giants. Shane Warne, Dennis Lillee and Bill Ponsford all have statues on the concourse and the Lions will run out of a tunnel opposite a stand, named after the legendary Aussie leggie, which holds 45,000 fans alone.
The Lions were messing around on the outfield on Friday attempting to play cricket like Warne and Lillee, and failing, before Ollie Chessum revealed he would not be here without the help of an Aussie.
Chessum, who will make his first Lions start on Saturday, feared he was out of the running after a shocking knee injury, which destroyed his autumn campaign, and shoulder trouble in the Six Nations. But he fell under the spell of Michael Cheika, the no-nonsense Australian, who coached Leicester last season and turned them from a rabble into Premiership finalists.
Chessum said: "Mindset is one of Cheik's huge unique selling points. He taught that Leicester squad last year that if you don't believe, you won't go anywhere, and if you do believe, you can do things that you never imagined.
"Simon Easterby, our defence coach, said to us at the start of this tour, 'We've got to do things that, right now, you think are impossible but, in six weeks' time, you will realise that they very much are possible'. That's something that Cheik taught me over this last year; to properly believe in what you're doing.
"Being here, the whole imposter syndrome can be a thing. You think, 'How on earth did I get here?'. But you have to believe in why you're here - I credit Cheik a lot for that."
Lock and cricket fan Chessum added: "This is everything you have ever dreamt of. There's no better time to walk towards the challenge than this one. You'd be kicking yourself in years down the line if you didn't."
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