As The British & Irish Lions Class of 2025 continue their preparations for what they hope will be a Wallaby whitewash, one of the stars of a previous Tour of Australia has several reasons to celebrate this week.

Lions legend Jason Robinson turns 51 today (July 30), 24 years on from making an instant impact on his maiden Tour when he was perhaps the very definition of a bolter.

Robinson started the 2000/01 season playing rugby league for Wigan Warriors and only played his first game of union in November having switched codes to represent Sale Sharks.

He admitted in an interview with Rugby World earlier this year that he ‘only really knew what the Lions were in June 2001’, while the nature of the call-up illustrates how different squad announcements were in his era.

“I was busy out in the garden mending my fence so that my dog couldn’t escape,” he said.

“He (Dave Swanton, Sale media manager) got in touch and told me I’d been picked on the tour. Even then I didn’t really understand what it was until the first day we met up as a squad.”

Perhaps ignorance was bliss. Robinson flew out the traps on Tour with five tries on his debut against a Queensland President’s XV, leaving The Guardian’s Robert Kitson to reflect that ‘he may easily prove the deadliest weapon in Graham Henry's increasingly well-stocked arsenal’.

Tour manager Donal Lenihan, who was also a playing Lion in 1983 and 1989, was similarly impressed.

“He told me that he'd only been playing union for six months, and there were still a lot of things he didn't understand, but he said ‘just pass me the ball and I'll be fine’,” Lenihan said.

“That's the way he was. He was a professional, there were things in training, his footwork, some of the things he would do on his own, individual exercises, it impacted greatly on the squad.

“It is a huge positive if you have someone in the group where people think ‘the more likely we can get the ball into this guy’s hands, the likelier it is we'll score a try’.”

That was the case in the first Test at The Gabba, Robinson having done enough in training and the warm-up matches to earn a start on the wing.

It took him less than three minutes to justify his selection, a famous step outside Chris Latham seeing Robinson cross for a try which set the Lions on their way to a 29-13 victory.

“I honestly didn’t know who he was but I actually think that helped me because I didn’t give people too much respect,” Robinson reflected.

“I just saw someone in front of me and thought, ‘can I go around you?’”

Unlike the current crop, however, the tourists were unable to secure a series victory Down Under as the Wallabies hit back to take the series 2-1, though Robinson crossed again in the decider.

It was a Tour which proved beyond doubt that he was a player, like current Lions Head Coach Andy Farrell, who could crack both codes.

He went on to win a World Cup with England and toured with the Lions again in 2005 while, according to Lenihan, his attitude rubbed off on several other influential names in the touring squad.

“I've heard Jonny Wilkinson speak about the impact seeing Robinson had on him,” he said.

“I know the likes of Brian O’Driscoll and Ronan O’Gara, who were two young guys at the time, would sit back and observe the way he went about his business.

“The Tour was a very difficult challenge for him. Even by his own admission, he didn't know the English players on the Tour that well, and on top of that, you're trying to gel with guys from Ireland, Scotland and Wales too.

“It was huge challenge for him, but I really admired the way he went about his business.”