McBride warns against the ‘disgrace’ of home Lions tour
THE board of the Lions has been warned that the heritage and ethos of the tourists will be “damaged for ever” if the tour of South Africa this year is switched to the UK and Ireland.
The board will meet today to discuss whether to continue with the eightmatch Lions tour in July and August amid concerns that travelling supporters are unlikely to be able to attend and matches may have to be played behind closed doors because of the pandemic.
It is understood that the Lions have also sounded out the opinions of senior playing groups in each of the four home unions ahead of the decision.
Contingency plans have been drawn up to host the “tour” in the UK and Ireland, including playing South African provincial sides such as the Bulls and Sharks in football stadiums.
Revenues
The plan, which includes playing the three Tests at the Aviva Stadium, Twickenham and the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, have been fully costed and would generate greater revenues than the original tour if capacity crowds were able to attend.
Willie John McBride, the most famous of all the Lions and captain on the “Invincibles” tour of South Africa in 1974, warned, however, that switching to a home series would cause irreparable damage to the tourists.
McBride, who played in 17 Tests for the Lions on a record five tours, said: “It would defeat the entire ethos of the Lions if they play a few games here in the home countries. It would be a disgrace. It will defeat everything the Lions stand for. It is not a Lions tour, or a Lions concept of any sorts to play anything here in the home countries.
“You have to play it in South Africa. In my view they should postpone it until next year. Let’s not lose the concept of what the Lions is all about.
If they have to postpone it for three years, it would not matter to me, as long as they retain the concept of what the Lions are all about.”
Postponing the tour to next year, however, is thought to be the outside option, given the impact it could have on preparations for the 2023 World Cup and rescheduling of tours that summer.
Rory Best, the former Ireland captain who captained the midweek Lions side on the tours of Australia and New Zealand in 2013 and 2017 respectively, insisted that pushing ahead with the tour as scheduled was the best option.
“You would still have the atmosphere of being on tour and in a different country and everything that brings and there are cultural things you can do,” Best said.
“From a player’s point of view, if they are able to play with 25 per cent of the capacity and the supporters are all South African, it would still create an atmosphere. And purely from a tour point of view, it would bring you tighter together because it really would be you playing against the nation. I would rather have gone on two tours and not make the Test team than play in a capped game in the UK.”
Best is also concerned that playing the Test series in the UK and Ireland would put the future of the Lions in jeopardy. “I feel there is already a big push to move the Lions towards just three Saturday [Test] games,” he said: “Once you start to mess around with the fabric of it, the people who want to move it have more scope to move it.
“Those who are banging that drum could say in the future that you played three Tests in the UK and that worked out OK. On the next tour they might look to play just two lead-in games or one midweek game. It would be a real shame to see the Lions taken apart bit by bit.” (© Daily Telegraph, London)