Lions tour manna from gods for our game

NZ Rugby coffers will swell by up to $ 35m but not a lot to be gained for the tourists

It is great for the development of the players coming through. It gives them a taste of what playing the best of the best is like in front of big crowds and they get to do it in the comfort of their home jerseys. Crusaders assistant coach Leon McDonald

This Lions tour i s the gift that just keeps on giving. For New Zealand that is. And only New Zealand.

Having the Lions here will net New Zealand Rugby somewhere between $ 25 million and $ 35million.

It's a windfall like no other — enough cash to keep New Zealand rugby strong for the better part of a decade.

That money is already being spent on the provincial game and other grassroots initiatives. Money like that buys a lot of balls, bibs and boots.

Money like that makes a difference, ensuring rugby in New Zealand continues to have its pick of the best athletes: continues to be able to ensure 10- year- olds are doing the little things right so that when they become 20- year- olds on the biggest stage, they finish the half- chances that come their way.

All of this is hugely important in preserving New Zealand's position as rugby's benchmark in excellence.

But having the Lions here has enormous value beyond the finances and money’s ability to enhance and strengthen the grassroots.

It has a more immediate effect. It is providing New Zealand's emerging professional talent with the opportunity of a lifetime to fast track their experience and understanding of elite rugby.

It's the ultimate win- win. The likes of Rieko and Akira Ioane will have taken a huge amount out of the Blues victory against the Lions.

Young Stephen Perofeta was given 50 minutes of invaluable exposure to high- quality rugby that will benefit him for years to come.

It's the same for the likes of Richie Mo'unga, Heiden Bidwell- Curtis, George Bridge and Jack Goodhue at the Crusaders.

All of them will be given a taste of what is effectively international rugby and probably, in a few years, all will view the match against the Lions in 2017 as some kind of significant landmark even in shaping them as players.

“It's a massive opportunity for these guys,” Crusaders assistant coach Leon McDonald said yesterday. “The young No 10 from the Blues, Stephen Perofeta, he will have taken a massive amount from that performance.

“He will never have experienced linespeed like he did on Wednesday night. And that is what you get in test match rugby. This tour is just great for our players. It is great for the development of the players coming through.

“It gives them a taste of what playing the best of the best is like in front of big crowds and they get to do it in the comfort of their home jerseys.”

Quite what's in it for the Lions isn't so clear. They survive as an entity because of nostalgia. They survive because rugby's traditionalists, which could actually be everyone in administration, is hoping to preserve a little bit of a forgotten era.

The concept of the Lions is romantic. The idea of taking four nations who mostly hate each other and combining them as one super team i s mad, but brilliantly mad.

They are such an easy team with which to connect emotionally but the reasons for them never coming to New Zealand again have to be stack- ing up. Here they are helping pump huge sums of money into New Zealand rugby and aid the development of players — both of which will only make the All Blacks stronger.

When they return home and split back into their separate nations, they might then wonder whether it was such a wise plan to have handed New Zealand such a competitive advantage.

In a few years when Perofeta or Mo'unga or whoever, inevitably helps mastermind an All Blacks victory against Ireland, England, Scotland or Wales, those who toured with the Lions will feel culpable.

And maybe they will ask whether it was all worth it as it's hard to see how the Lions can come out of this trip with much at all.

If they beat Super Rugby sides . . . so what . . . shouldn't an international team always be expected to beat a club outfit? And if they lose, as they have already, they are torn to shreds by the critics.

History won't remember that they arrived in New Zealand just three days before their first game. And while the Lions management keep saying they are prepared to lose a few games to chase the bigger goal of winning the tests, they have to be wary of destroying the reputations of good international players.

How must the likes of Maro Itoje and Courtney Lawes have felt at Eden Park the other night to have been copping it from their own supporters for losing to a team they would have, probably, squashed had they been playing for England? The Lions are putting themselves through purgatory all in the hope that it will magically come right in the test series. Looking at the risk and reward scenario, it just doesn't seem worth it.