Rugby: World Rugby gets the game it craves as Lions set up epic All Blacks decider

World Rugby has what it craves. It has the winner takes all, monumental series decider between the world's number one side and a credible, authentic, genuine challenger that represents four key pillars of the Northern Hemisphere game.

The sport needed this after the All Blacks romped through last year and set excitable tongues wagging that the one-sidedness of it all was a giant turn off and sending die-hard supporters to shopping malls, Pilates classes, juice bars and Lego exhibitions, anything really, in search of greater fulfilment.

It was nonsense, the sort of too quick to see the big picture reaction that plagues this social media age. But who can argue with Instagram these days and what the Twittersphere says, the Twittersphere adopts as fact.

But if there is an upside to hysteria being a default mode, is that as easily as perceptions can be made, so too can they be broken.

And on the back of one defeat, any sense of predictability within test rugby or perceived dwindling interest driven by the seeming inevitability of the All Blacks' global dominance has been well and truly booted to touch.

The Lions have roared back and with one victory they have set up a scenario that will do themselves, the All Blacks and the credibility and sellability of international rugby an enormous amount of long term good.

The first part hardly needs further explanation. The Lions, against the odds, stand 80 minutes away from making their own glorious history.

They have created the potential for Saturday's audience to be huge. The hype, the excitement and the sense of occasion are now in comparison with a World Cup.

Rugby is suddenly big news on the global sporting agenda - who isn't fascinated to see how this next test plays out?

"Rugby has been needing something like this for a wee while and it has now got it," says All Blacks coach Steve Hansen.

"We haven't done it a lot [lost] and people got carried away saying the All Blacks are this and the All Blacks are that. We kept saying that actually we don't believe that and then England got a bit of a roll on and it as all 'we can't wait for England and the All Blacks to play each other'.

"But now we have the All Blacks playing the Lions in a great situation. Competition is good for everyone because it forces you to have to improve. If you look at the World Cup in 2015 the four Home Nations would be pretty disappointed with what happened there and they have improved because of that which I think is good for the game.

"The game is bigger than all of us and if we want it to grow and teach us lessons about life both good and bad then we have to keep encouraging our game to be strong. It is moments like this series that go down in history."

The long term development of this All Blacks side will be greatly enhanced by having to dig in for a series decider.

The pressure will be huge and the expectation is that the All Blacks will respond strongly to defeat. Where they specifically need to improve is in some of their tactical decision-making.

Their courage was off the scale in Wellington. No other side in world rugby would have got as close to victory as they did with 14 men.

It was heroic and while it may have seemed inevitable they would ultimately be reined in by the Lions, the All Blacks know they made some poor decisions that reflected their relative lack of experience and pressure they were feeling.

Hansen would have loved to have seen the ball kicked long after the scores drew level at 21-all in the last eight minutes.

The All Blacks made the mistake of playing within goal kicking distance for the Lions when the smarter play would have been to kick deep and chase hard.

But that's the beauty of big games. Teams live through them, learn from them and grow. Whatever happens at Eden Park, the All Blacks will be better off for living through it and tasting what it feels like to have the world watching, most of them cheering for the underdog.