Touring a country as part of a team is such a rarity today and something every rugby player in the Britain dreams about. The British and Irish Lions is a team made up form all the home unions and only happens once every 4 years. If you are a top international player and young enough you may be lucky enough to play in 3 different test series during your career. The one they all want to play in is a series in South Africa as it offers many different challenges.
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This year the Lions are due to be playing their first of 8 matches on July 7th in Cape Town and it doesn't look promising. I am hoping the tour is postponed until next year as what is the point playing in empty stadiums that should be housing 70 000 spectators. The experience is totally different and is lost.
There have been calls for the tour to go ahead in Australia as a substitute venue but that would be just wrong. The reason why South Africa is so challenging is the schedule teams face. 8 matches over 4 weeks travelling from sea level to altitude is not easy and players struggle with this. Breathing in a rarified atmosphere has you gasping for energy after 60 minutes and why most touring teams fail.
Playing in Britain on green spongy fields is so much more different to a rock hard sun baked pitch that removes skin just looking at it. Every touring team gets the treatment starting at the coast on a lush green surface to be followed up by a concrete dust bowl at altitude. They will then play another game against a team that will soften the bodies up for the main even 3 days later. Not many teams win the first game as the odds are against you. By this point you are lucky if you haven't got 4 or 5 players as walking wounded.
I was looking at the itenary tonight and already it has been cut shorter than normal. This to me is unfair on the players as you are removing something that happens once or twice in a players career so postpone it and don't throw something away settling for something less.
Money at the end of the day is going to say yes or no to whether the tour goes ahead or not. Television rights and advertising will make the revenue required for the various Rugby Unions involved and why I expect it to still happen behind closed doors.
South Africa still hasn't started vaccinations for Covid and is only coming out of lockdown now. The specialist at the hospital has already given a date for the third wave which I find quite ridiculous as how do they know already. I cannot see the British Government allowing the team to travel to South Africa knowing how worried everyone is about our so called special mutated variant.
I would say this is an opportunity not to be missed and suggest the South Africans travel and play the Lions on home soil. This will be a spectacle no one has ever seen before as the Lions never play at home. The place will go nuts for 2 months or 10 weeks as that would be a proper money spinner. I just cannot see them coming here even though July is 4 months away as it is just too soon and too many things are up in the air right now with too many unknowns.
Ha! I thought that this
was going to be the new logo for LEO.