Premiership chief ’s fears over Lions tour

Premiership Rugby’s chief executive, Mark McCafferty, has criticised the “punishing” itinerary that the British and Irish Lions will undertake next summer in New Zealand.

The Lions will play seven matches as well as three Tests in six weeks, beginning on June 3, just seven days after the finals of the Aviva Premiership and Guinness Pro12.

“Personally, I don’t know why that was signed up to,” said McCafferty. “To play 10 games over that period of time, I think, is a lot. It’s a punishing schedule.

“For sure, there’s going to be a difficulty for players coming back off that tour into the Premiership for 2017-18. The stats will show you that countries that have had a very large contingent of Lions players – and Wales were the most recent – tend to suffer more injuries in that following season. It does have an impact.”

The issues of a global season and how the international calendar might look after the 2019 Rugby World Cup are causing concern at all levels of the elite game and McCafferty believes the current workload is unsustainable.

“I think the Lions is in the mix as we move towards the season structure post-2019,” he added. “You can’t do anything about this season. That’s been set some time ago. But 2021, the agreement is up and that will presumably involve the schedule for 2021.

“Just to be very clear, the Lions is a fabulous brand and an important part of the economics for the southern hemisphere and it should carry on. But it’s one of the elements that’s not sustaina- ble to think that players can go through a club and international season and be involved in that scale of a tour and then be in shape for the following season.”

As for the solution, McCafferty said: “We’ve got to sit down and have a look at that. It will not be until we’ve sat through that and understood how crucial it is to the financial picture in the south and what might be done.

“Do you need to play that amount of midweek games? All the economics are driven off the back of three Tests in the main. I know there are views and counter-views but it would be helpful to sit down. People behind the Lions need to listen to some of the other aspects to it.”

Meanwhile, Rob Howley will take over as Wales head coach for the season when Warren Gatland is announced as Lions coach on Wednesday week.