Michael Atkinson: Bring it on! Sledging, mind games heating up as Lions tour gets fast start with verbal barbs flying

Let the games begin!

Not the actual rugby, the off field games. 

The British and Irish Lions have barely had their skin singed by the Aussie sun, and they're already heating things up with some off field controversy. 

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And we should welcome it. Bring it on!

A quick recap: On Monday, Lions CEO Ben Calveley, sent a… let's call it a warning, to Rugby Australia over a clause in their tour agreement stipulating, in his words, "Test players have to be released to play in fixtures leading into that (Test) series." 

This comment was whipped into a frenzy by the UK press. 

On Tuesday, speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald, Joe Schmidt responded with "It's not as specific as saying every Wallaby from a state or a club has to be available to play every game that the Lions come through on."

Schmidt then declared there will be some players going back to the Reds (to play the Lions on July 2) and the Waratahs (playing the Lions on July 5, the night before the Wallabies face Fiji in Newcastle). 

And being a man of his word, on Wednesday morning Schmidt released Queenslanders Matt Faessler and Hunter Paisami to return to Ballymore.

This happened hours before a planned meeting between Calveley and RA CEO Phil Waugh in Perth to discuss the agreement around Test players.

The timing is coincidental - although it didn't stop one UK journalist claiming it as a win for Calveley - but it was no doubt pre-planned. Schmidt had stated publicly last Thursday, when announcing his squad, that someone like Faessler could spend the first few days in Wallabies camp before being released to re-join the Reds. 

Take it as a win if you want, Lions fans, but don't claim the moral high ground. 

As Justin Harrison rightly reminded us on Stan Sport's Inside Lion, Rugby Australia had wanted an Australia A fixture included in the tour schedule, but the Lions rejected the proposal for fear of the match becoming "a fourth test."

Probably also haunted by losing to Australia A - which featured Waugh and Harrison - back in 2001, in Gosford. 

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And with the Melbourne Rebels no longer in existence, RA have filled that slot with a 'First Nations/Pasifika' side. But the Lions, again wary of facing a team they might lose to, have already rejected several proposed line-ups for the fixture in Melbourne in between the first two tests. They literally have a say in selection. 

Speaking of rejection, let's not forget the Lions have also knocked back a proposal to have 'golden point' or even extra time introduced for the test series, to avoid an awkward draw like the one witnessed in New Zealand in 2017. 

Why wouldn't you want to have a defined winner? If the series is squared up at 1-all, why not have extra time as an option to decide the winner of the third test, and the series, in Sydney?

The north has always been a bit adverse to innovation and change. 

Pot-stirring is also not new from the Lions organisation. 

Cast your mind back to the 2013 tour down under and then captain, James Horwill being cited for 'stomping' after the first test in Brisbane. 'Big Kev' recalled the whole saga beautifully on Between Two Posts Extra last month.

After being found not guilty at the judiciary, Horwill's verdict was then disputed and appealed by World Rugby. They appealed their own verdict to try to get the Wallabies skipper banned for the third test. 

Thankfully, justice was served and Horwill played all three Test matches. Although he may have wanted to miss the final one, in hindsight. 

Cast your mind even further back to 2001, when Lions stars Austin Healy and Matt Dawson were writing columns for UK based newspapers while on tour. 

Far from being polite, 'day-in-the-life-of' tour diaries, the English pair pulled back the curtain on their true feelings about Wallabies players - Healy labelling Harrison a 'plod', a 'plank' and an 'ape' - while Dawson openly criticised many elements of the Lions' tour, including then coach Graham Henry. 

History shows the Lions aren't immune to a bit of off field controversy. 

Whether this latest example is a ploy to distract from an opening game loss to Argentina - their first defeat to the South Americans, ever - remains to be seen. 

But one thing you can guarantee, a loss to what is expected to be a very strong Western Force side on Saturday in Perth would turn the blow torch on Andy Farrell, Calveley and the Lions. 

Some media from the home nations are already highly critical of the comments from the CEO. 

Labelling them an "embarrassing clanger". 

The drama and theatre has begun, but the first whistle is yet to be blown.

Welcome to the Lions Tour. Hang on to your hats.