Shorter Lions tours will appease Premiership clubs

The 2021 British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa will be cut to eight matches, but future tours could be restored to 10 games.

Following the Lions’ tour to New Zealand this year, there has been much talk about the makeup of future tours and a shortened tour would be well received by English Premiership clubs.

Discussion between New Zealand, Australia and South Africa around the next three tours are nearly finished. According to UK’s The Guardian, the Lions have been pressured by the Premiership, which has the backing of the Rugby Football Union, to cut tours and reduce player workload.

The Lions played 10 matches in New Zealand this year and the first, a game against a provincial Barbarians team, was three days after they arrived. They didn’t have a full squad training before leaving the UK because of players’ club commitments.

One reason for a shortened tour of South Africa is because, unlike New Zealand, they would struggle to field seven teams strong enough to play the Lions outside the test matches, The Guardian wrote.

South Africa has had an exodus of players to Europe and Japan in recent years, which has weakened their player pool. They cut two of their Super Rugby sides this year, the Cheetahs and the Southern Kings, to try and strengthen the other teams.

The 2025 tour to Australia is also likely to have eight fixtures based on strength of the Australian game, but that is still to be confirmed.

If New Zealand rugby continues the way it’s going, 10 matches would be worth it in 2029. The Lions drew the test series against All Blacks 1-1 this year, but lost two and drew one of their seven other tour matches.