Lions boss rules out abandoning tour
Defiant Lions chief vows to stick to tour plan and rules out returning home
THE Lions are optimistic that they will be cleared for another shot at the Sharks tomorrow — just three days after emerging from isolation to put a half-century of points on them at Ellis Park.
Warren Gatland’s squad and staff will have a further round of Covid tests this morning amid renewed hope that the chaos enveloping their South Africa tour will not derail it completely.
After the scheduled game against the Bulls was postponed due to an outbreak of the virus in the home camp, it was confirmed yesterday that the Sharks from Durban would fill the void, somehow, if the Lions are approved to take them on again.
Following the turmoil on Wednesday — when the first game against the team from Natal was thrown into doubt after the Lions discovered that the pandemic had infiltrated their ranks — there was an easing of tension.
The player who initially returned a positive result was tested again and it came back negative. If he is negative again today, all of his close contacts who were forced to isolate will be free to return to the bubble and the Lions will be able to fulfil the revised fixture. They remain bullish about the prospects of this troubled campaign being able to continue, despite the disruption hampering the Springboks as well as the British and Irish squad. Ben Calveley (left), the Lions managing director, said: ‘What I would say is that it is a challenge. I’m definitely not going to say this is easy. But we are absolutely determined to make sure this tour will go ahead.’ He was asked if there had been any talk of relocating to the UK as an emergency measure — to play the Test series in full arenas — but he dismissed that notion out of hand, saying: ‘We are here in South Africa, we made a decision back in March that we would make the tour work here and there are absolutely no plans to deviate from that strategy.
‘It’s not as simple as just hopping on a flight and playing the series on British soil. We’re very much here, taking things one step at a time. The focus today has been the rearranged Sharks fixture.
‘We then get on a plane on Sunday and travel down to Cape Town where we have more fixtures –— and there are no plans for us to do anything different to that.’
Calveley revealed on Wednesday, prior to the first Sharks match, that not all of the Lions tour party are fully vaccinated — as had been widely assumed. When challenged on this issue yesterday he reacted with defiance, saying: ‘Everyone has a right to make their own decision on whether they want to be vaccinated. It’s wrong for anyone to think that vaccination is some sort of universal panacea. I’m afraid it’s not.
‘So we have an approach which is multi-layered where, as well as having a majority of the party vaccinated, we are also exhibiting all of the right behaviours.’
While there was much talk about how secure their bubble is, the Lions have had a scare — early proof that it is not impenetrable.
It remains to be seen for how long the member of the management who tested positive will have to isolate, but that is not an ideal scenario, especially just before a mass move south to Cape Town.
Calveley denied that the Sharks v Lions Part 2 was arranged merely to satisfy broadcasters and sponsors, saying: ‘We came into this country to play rugby matches, not to sit in biosecure bubbles.
‘We want to play the matches so that we can prepare the side to take on the Springboks in a Test series. That was the driver behind the decision to go ahead on Saturday.’