World Rugby should ensure Lions tour takes place in SA

After nearly three weeks on the Eastern Cape Wild Coast blissfully removed from reality it came as a pleasant surprise to turn on the television this weekend and discover that rugby people do indeed listen.

The directive to referees to turn the clock off for scrum resets, the limit of one minute given to kickers to complete their place-kicks regardless of whether it is a conversion or a penalty and the pressure now placed on players not to engage in endless meetings before line-outs had a noticeable effect on the Preparation Series game between the Stormers and Cheetahs.

But rugby people can’t always listen to what the fans want because sometimes there is an economic imperative that cuts across what most of those who just love the game, and who have no vested interest in it, really want.

If what rugby fans wanted was to be the imperative we certainly wouldn’t see any contemplation of a British and Irish Lions series against the Springboks played anywhere other than SA. The prospect of 2021’s scheduled series being played in the UK and Ireland, or even Australia, is understood to still be firmly on the agenda, even though if you asked most supporters they’d tell you they’d rather see it postponed than have either of those scenarios become reality.

To most of us, a postponement from this year to next year just makes sense. But we’re hearing now that if the Lions tour doesn’t take place in 2021, it won’t take place at all. That is because of the hoops that will have to be jumped through to placate the many other economic interest groups that will be affected were the Lions tour to be rescheduled.

For a start, the World Cup in France is still scheduled for 2023 (why not move that back a year too given the uncertain times we live in?), so 2022 becomes an important building block for the four individual nations that make up the British and Irish Lions entity. In fact, 10 rugby nations would be affected if the Lions series was postponed for a year.

Perhaps SA would get buy-in from Wales, whom the Boks are scheduled to meet in a threeTest series in 2022, to move their tour to this country forward to 2021. It is harder to see New Zealand or Australia changing their schedule. They both have big series scheduled then against Home Union teams that will be seen as important to their build-up to the World Cup a year later, as well as of course money spinners to provide a muchneeded boost to their coffers.

There was mention a few weeks ago of a possible rescheduling of the Lions series to March 2022. That would make sense, but only if the home unions are happy to either cancel or postpone the 2022 Six Nations, which is unlikely considering it will probably only be then that they will be getting their full crowds back into stadiums.

There’s little likelihood of anything near to full stadiums being possible for a Lions series this year regardless of whether it is played in SA or the UK. It makes no sense to host a Lions tour without the travelling support, and if only partial opening of stadiums will be possible for Lions matches in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Dublin, it is hard to see why that is an attractive alternative outside the fact there is probably money involved.

The potential for Australian stadiums to be open is why that country is still an option, but wouldn’t it be more logical to heed what a Scottish colleague suggested — let the Lions tour Australia and play against the Wallabies in 2021, and the Lions come here in 2025.

I know why that suggestion won’t meet the approval of SA administrators. SA Rugby needs the money now. So many stakeholders are banking on the economic windfall of the Lions series as a way of starting the recovery from the devastating blows sustained during the pandemic. To them what matters is that the money comes, not where the games are played and whether SA fans who have been waiting 12 years to see the Lions play here miss out.

Which begs the question of where World Rugby stands. Surely this is a time when the global body should use whatever power it has to ensure that a solution is found that is good for rugby universally. And what is good for rugby universally is that the Lions tour SA, be it 2021, 2022 or 2025.

Any other alternative, such as the one we learnt about at the weekend that would feature an SA A team touring concurrently with the Boks and playing four games against the Lions, with the number of Test matches increased from three to four, is just not a Lions tour.