Twelve years is a long time, and not just in sport.
It’s June 2025 and George North is on the north bank of the Brisbane River, in the shadow of Story Bridge, practising yoga in the winter sunshine.
“It’s probably the most Australian thing I’ve ever done,” says the former Wales winger.
The sedate scene is worlds away from the pulsating energy of the moment in 2013 when North entered British and Irish Lions folklore.
No, not the finger-wagging 60-metre solo try in the first Test – as jaw-droppingly brilliant as it was.
It’s the 60th minute of the second Test in Melbourne. North has just collected a through-the-legs pass from Brian O’Driscoll and is faced by his opposite number Israel Folau, a winger of similar 6ft 4in and 17-stone stature, with nowhere to go.
Seemingly wrapped up by Folau’s tackle, North decides to pump his legs and, ball in hand, scoops up his opposite number before using the Australia winger – now upside down on North’s back – as an improvised human battering ram. Wallabies were being knocked over like skittles.
“A bit silly to be honest,” is the way North remembers it. “Not my best idea,” he adds.
Iconic moments have come to define the 137-year history of the Lions. JPR or Jeremy Guscott’s drop-goals, Robert Jones squaring up to Nick Farr-Jones, Sir Ian McGeechan and Jim Telfer’s team talk, Matt Dawson’s dummy, O’Driscoll’s knife-through-butter try, the list goes on.
That North’s moment occurred in the second Test, the one the Lions lost by a single point, is almost forgotten. It came to define the 2-1 series victory over Australia in 2013.
North reveals that when he meets Lions fans, as he did on his recent 10-day working holiday in Australia, there is one thing they want to talk about.
“It’s probably the Izzy Folau carry,” he says. “And then it gets on to the try and the excitement and drama the Test series brought. Going to the decider [in 2013] was incredibly special as a player, but as a fan it was also as incredible.
“I never thought I’d be able to play for the Lions, playing for your country for me is the biggest honour anyone can award you and I never thought I’d be in the conversation to be a Lion, let alone tour two times.
“But to then say you’ve had an impact that people remember, an iconic moment, it doesn’t half put a smile on my face.”
