The British and Irish Lions meet the Springboks in Durban for the first test on Saturday 20 June. Both history and circumstance suggest that winning this first test is absolutely crucial if the Lions harbour hopes of winning the series.

The 2009 tour will be the 30th time that the Lions have travelled abroad to partake in a test series (they didn't play tests on their first tour in 1888). In the past it wasn't at all uncommon for a Lions tour to visit more than one country and examples of tests against New Zealand and Australia on the same tour aren't rare.

If we consider those instances as tours with multiple series, rather than a single composite series, then the Lions have won 15 of 39 overseas series. There are a number of ways of counting these tests - some are single game series and so forth - but however you choose to spin it, the stats show just how difficult it is to emerge victorious. What is even clearer is the importance of the first test in setting the tone for the series.

In the last century, only the 1989 Lions tour to Australia has recovered from a loss in the opener to eventually win a 3 game series. For the 2009 Lions, winning in Durban is of paramount importance.

To add to the importance, the first test against the Springboks is the only one of the three to be played at sea-level. Loftus Versfeld is over 1250m above sea level and Ellis Park - location of the third test - stands at a whopping 1700m. While Lee Mears might have spent the last few weeks training in an altitude chamber, this is anything but the norm and the Springboks will have a distinct edge in the acclimatisation stakes.

The successful 1997 Lions were the last Lions team to return victorious and they had the advantage of facing only one match at altitude. The last, which they subsequently lost. Then, like now, the Lions were playing the World Champions, but arguably a team on the descent and one certainly lacking the organisation and structure in place today.

In his autobiography, Lawrence Dallaglio, tourist with the 1997 side, suggested that either Ian McGeechan and Jim Telfer were extremely savvy negotiators or that the Springbok delegation choosing the location of the test series games were a little slow on the uptake. Dallaglio pointed out that if he was the SARFU planners he'd have wanted to arrange the first test at altitude, the second at sea-level and the last back at altitude. Either way, altitude is always a factor for rugby in South Africa and there's no doubt that in this area the chips have fallen less in favour of the 2009 Lions than they did for their predecessors.

Finally, there is the importance of momentum. If the British and Irish Lions can generate momentum in the first test, and momentum in the midweek games leading up to that first test, they will be giving themselves a chance in what history tells us is the toughest of rugby adventures.

The Lions face the Royal XV in Rustenburg a week today, and while on paper a scratch team drawn primarily from Vodacom Cup teams shouldn't be a match for the international calibre the Lions will field, a win is certainly not a formality. The Lions are playing away from home, at altitude (Royal Bafokeng Stadium sits at 1500m) and are, obviously, a scratch side themselves. There is no such thing as an easy Lions match. They won't have had time to gel and it's important that they start building momentum from game one.

If they build a head of momentum in the early midweek games, that confidence and togetherness will be carried through into the opening test, and if they can eek out a win there, they stand a chance of a series victory against the Boks. It's a big ask, but the first test is absolutely critical.