I’d love to see South Seas take on Lions

MAYBE, just maybe, there is life in the old Lion yet, thanks to the Australians. Which must be quite high on the list of sentences you never expected to read.

If the bulletins from Down Under are accurate, only three of the Wallaby nation’s five Super Rugby franchises will be on the eightmatch schedule in a little over two years’ time: the Reds, Waratahs and Brumbies, all of whom have given the British and Irish tourists a proper fight – quite literally, in the case of the Sydneysiders – over the last couple of decades or so.

The Melbourne Rebels may not care for their rumoured rejection, having taken on the Lions in 2013 and found a means of not embarrassing themselves in the way Perth-based sides have a habit of doing out west, but the idea of a slot for a Pacific Islands Select XV featuring the best talent from Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Papua New Guinea has plenty going for it.

Competitively, it makes sense. Blow-out victories in the weeks leading into a Test series are no good to the Lions and do even less for rugby in general, given that one-sided games are about as interesting as a bowl of day-old polenta, without the seasoning.

It also does something for the profile of Pacific union, which, heaven knows, needs all the help it can get as the lure of Olympic Sevens and international rugby league continues to grow. A well-coached South Seas combination, underpinned by decent facilities and proper preparation time, would remind us all – not least the governing class – of the crucial importance of islands rugby to the future of the code.

It is probably too much to hope that the game, assuming it happens, takes place in Suva or Apia, in Nuku’alofa or Port Moresby. But we’ll happily settle for mainland Aussie, provided the money is spread fairly.