NO SWEAT! WAX WORKS ON BALL

RUGBY UNION

THE British and Irish Lions are exploring a switch of dates for next year’s tour of South Africa to allow it to be staged in the autumn because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The current schedule sees the threeTest series against the world champions (right) planned for July and August 2021, but preliminary talks have taken place to move it to the October and November. The shift has

KOOKABURRA has developed an alternative to saliva and sweat for shining the ball. Instead of the natural methods used to make the ball swing, expected to be outlawed due to coronavirus health and safety fears, the Aussie ball manufacturer has created a wax it believes does the same thing.

Kookaburra boss Brett Elliott said: “This could be available within a month, but it has yet to be tested in match conditions.” been put forward as a potential solution to the international fixture backlog if this summer’s tours by the Home Unions are, as expected, called off.

A Lions spokesman said: “While we continue to look forward to an incredible tour against the world champions in summer next year and there are no planned changes, it would be remiss of us not to explore various scenarios for a possible date change caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.”