Review of the 2009 British & Irish Lions Match Highlights DVD

Article Published: Wednesday 30 September 2009

Print Article

The Official 2009 British & Irish Lions Match Highlights DVD is out on Monday 7th September and the good people over at Lace have sent us an advance copy to take a sneak peek at in advance of it's official launch.

Usually these sorts of DVD's don't really do much for us because we all know that the big one that we are all looking forward to is the behind the scenes documentary that follows in the footsteps of Living with Lions in 1997, Up close and Personal in 2001 and Inside the Lions Den in 2005.

I've seen a trailer for the 2009 version and it looks ace, so whilst we are waiting for the real deal the match highlights DVD will provide us all with a timely reminder of the tour that repaired the brand.

Following the two previous tours to Australia and New Zealand where the Lions Tours represented a massive commercial success, but a dismal failure on the field, the 2009 tour returned to it's roots. "Mr Lions" Ian McGeechan was employed as Head Coach and The Lions returned from South Africa having given a good account of themselves and can consider themselves very unlucky not to have come home victorious, very much true to Geech's form when he has been involved in any Lions side.

The tour has been called rugby's greatest test series of the last 30 years by respected Radio 5 rugby correspondent Ian Robertson and this is certainly the main reason why a copy of the match highlights should be on everyone's shopping list this autumn.

The DVD itself follows true to the genre's form with a structured, but largely functional series of match highlights with very little in the way of dressing. Great for that fact that it is action all the way, however it is footage we have all seen before (and very recently too) so some sort of build up to each of the games would have been a good idea.

There isn't much in the way of extra's to be found either, but I guess this is being saved for the more comprehensive behind the scenes documentary due out in October.

At £19.99 however, for a blow by blow account of all the action from one of the truly great Lions series' of all time it certainly represents great value for money.

The icing on the cake is that Lace have kindly included a bonus DVD featuring the final test match in Johannesburg in full so you can watch every second of the 28-9 thrashing of the Boks in their very own rugby fortress again and again, which is nice.

I guess that the last thing to point out here is that neither of the previous two Match Highlights DVD's I have of the 2001 and 2005 tours made it into my player ahead of the 2009 tour to South Africa. I have a feeling in 2013 this one will!

Win one of five copies of the 2009 British & Irish Lions Match Highlights DVD

Thank you for your interest in our competition. Unfortunately this competition has now closed and the winners have been notified. Keep an eye on the site for a new competition to win copies of the ‘Lions: Living With The Pride’ 2009 documentary DVD very soon.