Lions tour has been turned into franchise
WILLY John McBride was a genuinely great player whom I had the privilege of watching play on several occasions. While I haven’t agreed with all his pronouncements on rugby over the years, he is absolutely correct with his recent comments on the forthcoming Lions “Tour”. It is indeed all about money.
In reality it has been all about money for the last 30 odd years, ever since relatively cheap air travel enabled thousands of supporters to follow the tours. Indeed, money has become the driving factor. The host country makes money, the host union makes money, the tour operators make money and the Lions organisation itself makes money.
I began to become disillusioned with the Lions over their insistence on touring South Africa against all pleading and advice in 1980 when apartheid was at its height and no-one could be under any illusion about what was going on in that country. Rugby Union was put in an uniquely bad light for purely selfish reasons.
The institution of the World Cup in 1987 followed in 1995 by the opening of the game to professionalism rendered the Lions an anachronism which undermines national preparations for the next World Cup, as former England prop, Jeff Probyn, famously remarked back in 1993.
Chairman Mao spoke of the effective drip, drip of propaganda and he might have been talking about the endless propaganda dripped on the heads of aspiring players who are endlessly told that selection for the Lions is the ultimate accolade. But representing your country is surely the greatest honour any player could receive. Representing the Lions is an accolade but selection is notoriously random with more than an element of Buggins’ turn. Selection for the Lions means guesting for a touring side in similar fashion to the Barbarians. A victorious tour has little meaning as notionally the best of four countries takes on the best of one.
Lions’ tours are now big business as evidenced by the desperation of the organisers to stage this one which, as Willy John suggests, has further undermined the original ethos of the Lions.
Though once an enthusiastic supporter I now feel that Lions tours have been turned into a franchise where even the head coach can be hired from anywhere around the globe while concerns have been raised that the Lions “will lose money”.
What this has in common with the old tours, undertaken by amateur players which lasted up to three months and usually consisted of around 24-26 games including four tests, I struggle to comprehend.
The greatest Lions Tour of them all remains that of 1971 – 26 games, 30 players with two replacements, a manager and a coach. Some of the players had to give up jobs to go on tour or take unpaid leave of absence. But the Clive Woodward farce of 2005 should’ve marked the last rites.
As a Welsh fan I want to see a good Welsh team that has a chance of success at the World Cup, not one whose leading players have been battered to bits while making money for third parties in pursuit of a meaningless chimera that is as far removed from the original concept of the Lions as can be imagined. The Lions has gone corporate. Willy John is right.
Ian Seaton Mumbles Some electric vehicles are safer than others
NOT infrequently, particularly in recent months, has attention been drawn to the disturbing nature, indeed deemed dangerous by some, of the young adult’s transport of choice, the electric scooter.
No doubt those in power will limit, even strangle usage, to “save lives” – despite inconveniencing the user.
But what, then, of those selecting electric motor cars ?