Lions have become a farce rages Willie John
WILLIE John McBride today accuses the four Home Unions of turning the Lions into a ‘total farce’.
The most venerated of all Lions is calling on the organisers to scrap plans for switching the scheduled summer tour from South Africa to Britain and Ireland, warning that such a move could hasten the demise of the world’s most famous touring team.
“I fear for the Lions,’’ McBride tells The Rugby Paper. “I worry that they could now be on their way out. They are doing what I was scared they would do by playing a series at home.
“It’s a farce, a total farce. They have lost the concept of the Lions and what they are about. The Lions epitomised all the things we held dear. It’s about bringing young men together, teaching them tolerance and understanding by going to far-flung corners of New Zealand, South Africa and, more recently, Australia.
“I remember going there with the Lions in 1966 to raise money for Rugby Union in Australia before it died. We helped put them back on their feet and they then went on to win two of the first four World Cup finals.’’
McBride speaks with the undisputed authority of a player who has made the most Lions tours (five), played the most Tests (17) and the most Lions matches (70) – towering records which will never be remotely challenged let alone broken.
Still going strong at 80, he is in no doubt what the Lions should be doing over the summer if the series in South Africa is doomed by the pandemic. “You just cancel it,’’ he says. “There will be nobody at the games. They should rearrange it for South Africa next year. Instead all they’re interested in nowadays is money.
“I’d love to know who is controlling rugby. Is it the (English) Premiership clubs? Is it television? Is it the sponsors?’’
The Lions’ latest plan for the alternative tour revolves around an additional Test match. The four Home Unions are considering a four-match series with the extra one likely to replace the proposed Lions v Japan fixture booked for Murrayfield on June 26.
The Springboks are in favour of the extra Test as a practical solution to the difficulties in arranging non-Test fixtures. “The idea of the top South African provincial teams coming over here to play the Lions is a non-starter,’’ a source told The Rugby Paper. “It’s now a case of: ‘Play it here or cancel it’.”
Chief executives of the English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh Unions discussed the optimistic scenario that by summer they will be allowed to reopen stadia for a socially-distanced capacity reduced to 25 per cent. That would allow for marginally more than 20,000 at Twickenham, 18,500 in Cardiff, 17,150 at Murrayfield and a fraction under 13,000 at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, or 20,500 at Croke Park.
England and Ireland have made strong objections to the Lions tour being postponed until next summer. They fear such a move will not only wreck their tours of Australia and New Zealand respectively but undermine their prospects at the World Cup the following year.
Given the probability that they would supply the
Lion’s share of any best-ofBriths-and-Irish squad, England fear they will pay the heaviest price for the dip in form which invariably affects top players in the season after a Lions series.
None of that cuts any ice with McBride. “They can rearrange time tables,’’ he says in reference to the Anglo-Irish issues over their national tours next year. “The Lions only play in the southern hemisphere, nowhere else.
“A Lions tour here is not the Lions. I feel very sorry about it.’’