Halfpenny pledge proves Lions are still the pinnacle
AS THEY prepare to renew their fight against extinction, the Lions received welcome news yesterday from the south of France. Leigh Halfpenny is available for the tour of New Zealand after all.
There had been widespread fears that the player of the series from 2013, when Warren Gatland’s team beat Australia 2-1, would be ruled out of the next summer’s mission due to club commitments at Toulon. But it turns out that he insisted on being released — if selected — as a condition of signing a new deal.
According to Wales’s goal-kicking full back, Toulon made it clear they would be ‘proud and honoured’ for their player to wear the iconic red shirt again. Not as proud and honoured as Halfpenny himself.
The appeal of the Lions is as strong as ever for Britain and Ireland’s finest. It remains the ultimate ambition for players in these islands. It also remains the biggest box-office draw that rugby has to offer, but it is under attack from disgruntled English clubs.
Premiership Rugby chief executive Mark McCafferty has claimed that staging 10-match Lions tours is ‘unsustainable’ and his sentiments have been echoed by club coaches.
Yet the primary problem is the selfinterest which threatens a cherished IF ONLY there was a shred of doubt about who will win it, this year’s Rugby Championship would be truly enthralling. There’s certainly been high drama. In fact, the event has been engulfed in near-daily controversy. Maybe it’s a grand plan to boost modest ratings. The latest eruption was caused by the disgraceful non-citing of New Zealand prop Owen Franks (right), for apparently ‘making contact with the eye area’ of Australia lock Kane Douglas. That dereliction of disciplinary duty has once again held the sport’s judiciary up to ridicule and revived protests about the All tradition. The Lions fly to New Zealand on May 29, two days after the Aviva Premiership and Guinness Pro12 finals. Training camps before that will be decimated by the absence of those still on club duty. The first tour match is on June 3, three days after arrival in Auckland.
The 2017 tour schedule was agreed in 2009. It is not a sudden shock. While debates about a global season, fixture congestion and player welfare rage on, the bottom line for British and Irish rugby is that it cannot keep dispatching its marquee team south without rest and preparation time. Far from shortening tours, the lead-in time must be longer.
Here’s a plan. Every four seasons from 2020-21, the leagues can do without their play- offs. The team who finish top claim the title. Scrap the Anglo-Welsh Cup, too, and let the unions — having demanded far better financial terms for the Lions — handsomely compensate the clubs.
If it means more league games during Test windows, perhaps make victories worth three points rather than four. There’s always a solution. They could even stage a send- off fixture; a combined PremiershipPro12 champions XV against a Lions XV, to ease the revenue shortfall.
However it is worked out, worked out it must be. The Lions are too precious to be facing extinction. Blacks receiving preferential treatment. Cue an outpouring of Kiwi indignation, but they can’t blame others for being suspicious, when a referee recently asked their Test captain, Kieran Read, following a decision against his side: ‘Are you happy with that?’ Ludicrous deference. Put aside the spying rows, heightened security, clandestine meetings with match officials and barbs between coaches, and the stark fact is that Steve Hansen’s world champions have again made a mockery of the whole notion of transition. They are miles ahead of the rest. Their monopoly may not be good for the health of the game, but their continuing brilliance most certainly is.