Lions will risk serious injury without more time to prepare, warns Gatland

Warren Gatland has again criticised Premiership Rugby Limited and warned that British and Irish Lions players face the risk of serious injury if not given adequate time to prepare for the 2021 tour.

Gatland, the Lions head coach in 2013 and 2017, has repeatedly called for the team to be given at least another week of training before they travel to the southern hemisphere.

Discussions over how the tour to South Africa will fit into the rugby calendar continue, but PRL chief Mark Mccafferty has already refused to accommodate a change in the English season to help out, describing such a move as “suicidal” to his competition.

For the Lions tour to New Zealand last summer, Gatland’s side played the first of their 10 matches just three days after landing. The trip to South Africa is likely to feature eight matches in five weeks.

“If the Lions is supposed to be the best of the best, you have to give them adequate preparation,” said Gatland, who is unbeaten in two Test series as head coach.

“I felt in New Zealand my biggest concern was flying on the Monday, arriving on the Wednesday and then playing that Saturday. By doing that we were opening up players to the potential of injury risk.”

Gatland boasts three Lions tours on his CV – he was forwards coach alongside Sir Ian Mcgeechan in South Africa in 2009 – and knows exactly what it is like working at elite level.

“If you need not the best but adequate preparation, then I find it ironic major nations send teams to the Gold Coast for two weeks to prepare for a sevens programme and the Lions can’t go to Hong Kong,” Gatland said. “I don’t know why they can do that and you can’t send your No1 team away to prepare. Why wouldn’t you want the Lions to have at least a week to prepare together?

“If it’s in the UK or Ireland before you fly to South Africa, that would be adequate. It’s his [Mccafferty’s] choice, but it makes things difficult. He has his opinion and I have mine.”