Lions tour... Euro places... loans... and TV deals... the big issues rugby is facing
SO it’s finally been confirmed, the British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa will go ahead this summer as originally planned.
But there’s still lots of detail to be confirmed in terms of the schedule and whether any fans will be able to attend the matches, while Warren Gatland now turns his attention to finalising his coaching team, not to mention picking his playing squad.
There are other big decisions coming up in the game of rugby as well, both on the international and domestic front, with much still up in the air.
So lots to do. Here’s the latest on the key issues that need resolving.
THE LIONS TOUR
THERE have been so many different locations, formats and schedules mooted for this summer’s British & Irish Lions tour, it’s been hard to keep up.
The original plan was for an eightmatch trip to South Africa, taking in three Tests against the world champion Springboks.
It was to run from July 3 to August 7, with fixtures in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Mbombela.
The Covid-19 pandemic inevitably cast huge doubt over those plans and led to various alternatives being suggested, including moving the tour to Australia, staging it in the UK or putting it back a year.
But now we are reverting to Plan A, with the Lions confirming their intention to tour South Africa as scheduled this summer.
In doing so, they acknowledge there is a significant amount of work still to be done to deliver a robust Covid countermeasure plan to ensure a successful, safe and uninterrupted trip.
In terms of fans, it is not yet known whether international travel into South Africa will be possible in July or whether spectators will be permitted into grounds.
SA Rugby admit there will be serious financial implications for them should the tour take place without any supporters present.
Taking that and the predicted progress of the pandemic over the coming months into consideration, the original tour schedule is subject to review.
But the big news is it is set to go ahead in South Africa in some shape or form.
It’s all happened just as former WRU chief executive Martyn Phillips has stepped in as interim Lions managing director, with Ben Calveley having been signed off from work on health grounds.
LIONS COACHES
WITH the tour now on, head coach Warren Gatland will need assistants. So who will he go for? One imagines the former Wales boss has been doing plenty of work behind the scenes lining up his preferred coaching team.
The most recent reports suggest he is eyeing a hugely experienced support staff that includes Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend, Ireland boss Andy Farrell and England’s defensive guru John Mitchell.
It’s understood the SRU are clearing the way for Townsend to serve as attack coach after missing out on the 2017 tour of New Zealand because of his commitments with the national team.
Englishman Farrell and Kiwi Mitchell are both believed to be strong contenders, pending permission from the respective unions they now work for.
It would be Farrell’s third Lions trip, following his involvement as defence coach in Australia in 2013 and New Zealand four years ago.
The indications are Leicester head coach Steve Borthwick, Munster forwards coach Graham Rowntree and Wales kicking coach Neil Jenkins are also in the frame.
Former England forwards coach Borthwick was on board with Gatland for the drawn series with the All Blacks in 2017, while Jenkins and Rowntree have both coached on three previous Lions trips.
CHAMPIONS CUP QUALIFICATION
YOU couldn’t really make it up, could you?
The final round of scheduled Guinness PRO14 fixtures have just been played and yet we still don’t know how many teams will qualify from the league for next season’s Champions Cup.
It leaves Cardiff Blues facing an anxious waiting game, while the Dragons could also find themselves in the same position.
The confusion arises from the fact that no decision has yet been made on how many teams will be involved in Europe’s elite event.
That, in turn, has a knock-on effect for the number of places available to the PRO14. Will it be 6, 7 or 8?
The Champions Cup was expanded from 20 to 24 teams this season, as a result of the unprecedented issues thrown up by the Covid-19 pandemic.
But it’s unclear whether or not that will just be a one-off.
Will we be sticking at 24, will we be going back to 20 or will they come up with another number? No-one seems to know.
If it stays at 24, there would be eight teams from the PRO14 on board, with the top four from each conference qualifying.
That would be good news for Cardiff, who secured fourth spot in Conference B by beating rivals Edinburgh 34-15 at the Arms Park on Monday night.
The Dragons could yet finish fourth in Conference A and similarly secure a seat at Europe’s top table.
To do so, they would need to defeat Edinburgh at Rodney Parade next Sunday by a sufficient margin to pip Glasgow, who are home to Benetton the day before.
At present, the Dragons and Danny Wilson’s Glasgow are level on points and matches won.
But the Scots have a 23-point lead when it comes to points difference, so Dean Ryan’s men would really have to go some to haul them in.
And, even then, there is no guarantee that fourth place would be enough.
What we do know is Wales will definitely have two sides in the Champions Cup next season, with the Ospreys and Scarlets having defeated Leinster and Connacht respectively over the weekend to finish third in their conferences.
Whatever happens, the top three from each section will make it through, with the PRO14 sure to have at least six entrants.
Whether it ends up with eight remains to be seen. There is one final caveat to all this. Might there possibly be moves to include any of the South African Super Rugby sides in next season’s Champions Cup?
The Sharks, Stormers, Bulls and Lions are about to join the PRO12/14 community, initially via the Rainbow Cup and then an expanded PRO16.
So could we potentially see an attempt to involve them in European competition as well?
You do wonder if that might be part of the reason for the delay in announcing next season’s format.
One thing is for sure. If any South African sides were shoe-horned into the Champions Cup without having qualified for it via a league, it would create a hell of a stink, especially from the PRO14 sides who would miss out as a result.
It’s safe to say Cardiff Blues would have something to say about that.
THE RAINBOW CUP
IN theory, this is supposed to get under way in just over three weeks.
But there are no fixtures in place and no certainty it will take place at all.
The plan is for the four South African “Super” sides – the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers – to do battle with the 12 teams from Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Italy.
This brand new competition is due to run from April 17 to June 19 and feature 57 matches, with the PRO14 season having been cut short to accommodate it.
The original idea was to have two pools of eight, with teams playing all the other sides in their section once.
That would give you seven guaranteed fixtures, with each original PRO12 team supposed to make one trip to South Africa, as well as having a home game against one of the new boys from the land of the world champions.
You would then have the two pool winners meeting in the final.
The idea was to provide the homebased Springboks with some muchneeded rugby ahead of the planned Test series against the British & Irish Lions this summer.
It would also unlock a significant chunk of the £6m the South African RU pay per year to compete in the PRO14. But there are clearly complications. Covid remains a huge issue, one that has cast continuing doubt over the cross-continent competition being able to go ahead.
As I understand it, the hope remains it can take place, but with some fairly major tinkering.
It may well be held over a shorter period, with a later start and fewer matches, for logistical reasons.
Plus, there will be no Welsh, Irish, Scottish or Italian teams travelling out to South Africa.
The hope is the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers will still come over here to play games.
Premier Sports are running repeated adverts for their coverage of the competition, so they seem confident enough. But, as things stand, there is no definite news on what is happening.
WALES’S SUMMER TOUR
THE plan was for Wayne Pivac’s Wales to tour Uruguay and Argentina this
summer. With the star names set to be away with the Lions, it would be the perfect opportunity to look at some younger players and further build depth ahead of next season and the 2023 World Cup.
But clearly Covid-19 has thrown the trip into major doubt, given safety concerns and potential restrictions in terms of travelling to South America.
At present, the tour is not yet officially off, but it has to be considered unlikely to go ahead.
However, Wales are still hoping to play international matches this summer.
They missed out last year with their planned trip to New Zealand cancelled due to Covid.
That left them pretty undercooked when they came to start the season in October. They want to avoid that this time around.
It’s important in terms of preparation and with an eye to the longer-term future.
If you look back to the last Wales trip during a Lions year, in 2017, you saw the likes of Josh Navidi, Wyn Jones, Adam Beard, Tomos Williams, Ryan Elias and Dillon Lewis gain invaluable experience of the Test arena.
All of those were part of the squad for this year’s Six Nations.
So it’s really important to provide the next wave of talent with international opportunities – the likes of Jac Morgan, Keiran Williams, Mat Protheroe, Ashton Hewitt, Corey Domachowski, Morgan Jones and Rhys Davies.
As such, even if Wales don’t go out to Argentina, they will be looking to arrange matches this summer.
Whether that might mean the Pumas coming over here remains to be seen, while much will also hinge on whether the Lions tour actually goes ahead in terms of the Test programme.
THE £20M LOAN
THE figures are pretty well known by now.
Due to the financial meltdown caused by Covid, the WRU has slashed payments to the four Welsh regions from £26m to £3m for the current season.
To cover that shortfall and keep the pro game afloat, they have taken out a £20m bank loan with Natwest.
But the contentious element is that the money will have to be paid back by the regions over the next five years.
That has angered their fans, who argue it was to cover money the union were originally due to pay out in return for access to regional employees for Wales duties.
But the WRU is sticking rigidly to the risk-reward element of the PRA, which stipulates only the distribution model, not a minimum amount that has to be paid out.
Fans’ fury has grown in the wake of the union receiving £51m in total as part of the CVC investment in the Six Nations.
Regional supporters feel that money should be used to pay off the £20m loan, with the WRU now having income coming in.
But none of the £51m will be going direct to the four pro teams. Instead, it will be spent on capital projects, with a view to generating long-term revenue for the game as a whole.
As a result, the regions’ immediate focus is on seeing the £20m loan restructured to reduce the burden on them. The word is it could be extended over 20 years with much reduced annual repayments.
We await a definite decision on that front.
SIX NATIONS TELEVISION RIGHTS
THIS is a real hot potato.
The current Six Nations TV deal, which has seen BBC and ITV share coverage, came to end at the weekend.
The rights are now up for grabs and we could well see the tournament go behind a TV paywall for the first time, with all the inevitable outcry.
One would expect the likes of Amazon Prime, Sky and BT to be very interested in broadcasting the showpiece tournament.
But terrestrial TV is not about to give up without a fight.