Premiership hits back at Spencer over tour

Mark Mccafferty, the Premiership Rugby chief executive, has hit back at criticism levelled by the Lions chiefs that he is unwilling to accommodate their request for more preparation time.

John Spencer, the Lions tour manager for the drawn series with New Zealand, accused the Premiership clubs of driving demands to shrink future tours from six to five weeks. He warned such a reduction would undermine the Lions concept and could result in England players being excluded.

On Wednesday, organisers of the Pro14 confirmed that they would be willing to alter their schedule to provide the Lions with an extra week’s preparation. Mccafferty was unwilling to follow suit but claims this is because he has received no communication from the Lions since February.

“The end-of-tour press conference was not exactly complimentary about the English Premiership given that we supplied over half the squad,” Mccafferty said. “The Lions need to recognise they are doing themselves quite a lot of damage if they don’t engage in a positive way.

“I have heard nothing from them. We have not been asked anything. They need to contact us and if they deign to speak to us maybe we have got some things to talk about.”

Asked about altering the Premiership schedule, Mccafferty added: “Do you want to mess with a very successful competition format after the semi-finals and finals we’ve just had? One of the options may be for some of the unions involved to cancel one of their internationals.”