Lions snub shames top clubs

All those powerbrokers who refused to make a small sacrifice by granting the Lions a modicum of preparation time before leaving for New Zealand will not have spent much time dwelling on a comment from Warren Gatland.

“We should do as much as we possibly can to promote the Lions,’’ the head coach said. To shrug it off as a case of well, he would, wouldn’t he, is to miss the point.

To have asked the Premiership and PRO12 to stage their finals one week earlier ought not to have been asking too much. Regrettably, it was and the Lions leave straight after both finals with some of their star players no doubt in varying states of disrepair.