Former Bath and England prop and current rugby pundit, David Flatman, raises a very interesting point when he says the British and Irish Lions ought to consider dropping provincial games from future tours.
On the current tour, it is arguable that predictable, one-sided provincial matches simply deliver inadequate preparation for Test rugby (although, to be fair, it also looks as if the Springboks will also be underprepared going into this series for various reasons). The fact remains, however, that the South African provincial teams have failed to provide much of a challenge to the Lions and and, in four years when the Lions visit Australia, there is next to no expectation that the Aussie provincial teams will be any better.
Flatman’s suggestion is that such provincial matches are therefore replaced by international matches against the likes of, say, France and/or a “fully loaded” Tongan, Fijian and Samoan teams.
I would agree that the Lions tour concept does need an overhaul if it is to stay relevant. Certainly if the format sticks to the ludicrously short 8 match tour in only a handful of venues, with the host country’s players only appearing in the Test matches, then provincial matches will continue to have little value and yes, I can see the appeal of freshening things up with international opposition.
This would, however, further detract from a Lions tour being an actual tour. Why bother going to Australia, for instance, when a series of matches against France, the Pacific Island teams and Australia could be played anywhere?
What I would like to see, and I appreciate that it is something of a pipedream, is a return to proper touring, with a proper fixture list which gets progressively more difficult, where the provincial teams are able (and expected) to field their strongest line ups and where the idea of “the Lions coming to town” is a significant event in itself.
That’s the overhaul I would like to see and, commercially, I am convinced it would work for both the Lions and the host nations, especially given that – in non-Covid times (if we ever see them again) – there will be the inevitable red wall of invading travelling fans.
Where the idea falls down, of course, is that we still, as yet, do not have the utopia of a mutually beneficial global season and so competing national and domestic interests will continue to prevail.
What is clear to me, however, is that – without a change of mindset from all interested parties – the Lions tour as we know it could easily become an endangered species.
Total Flanker – the older I get, the better I was
Source:
https://www.totalflanker.co.uk/2021/07/future-overhaul-for-lions.html
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