SO how was it for you? The rUK and Irish Lions’ tour ended in a quite extraordinary fashion – admit it, who on earth predicted a drawn series?

Loud have been the calls for deciding match. It is an interesting idea, but a tour is a tour is a tour, and you have to accept that the Test series is the pinnacle of that tour, so if it ends all square then sorry, that’s just the way it has to be.

For the Test series to finish the way it did is proof that no one can ever really predict the outcome of international rugby at the highest level. The final match was viscerally exciting though the quality of the rugby at times was certainly not of the highest degree.

Yet again a refereeing decision has been seen to be the deciding factor in a match, though that is unfair as the real deciding factor for the whole series was Sonny Bill Williams and his moment of madness in the second test which saw him red carded.

I thought a full quota of the All Blacks on pitch for 80 minutes would have beaten the Lions that day and clinched the series, and Sonny Bill must live with that knowledge for the rest of his life.

The point about a series is that it is in effect a mini-league and the team which wins the most games will always be the champions. When it is a draw, the honours are shared, and Warren Gatland can indeed take the credit for finding a way to share the points with the All Blacks. One wonders if he’ll ever be able to go home to New Zealand… There is of course, no such thing as a poor All Black, but with hindsight it can be seen that the current New Zealand squad is indeed transitional and you just cannot lose people like Richie McCaw and Dan Carter and expect to play to the same standard.

We saw some courage from the Lions and they can hold their heads up high. The Rucker has no hesitation in saying, however, that the failure to play a Scot in any of the Tests was a mistake.

Furthermore if Stuart Hogg had not been injured, I am certain the Lions would have won the series. Still, he and the likes of Finn Russell and Jonny Gray are young enough to be thinking of the next Lions tour to South Africa in 2021 by which time they will be world champions...

Mentioning the Rainbow Nation brings the Rucker to a neat conclusion. Not being one to exaggerate things too often, the Rucker has examined the points for and against, and is decreeing that the moves to bring two South African franchises into the Pro-12 may be the most stupid thing that the rugby authorities have done in a long time.

It may solve the cash problems of certain unions but it is the wrong move for players and especially fans. All the unions have to do to disprove my assertion is to answer this question – how many fans were consulted?