Comments on: The last ever Lions Tour? http://www.therugbyblog.co.uk/the-last-ever-lions-tour Rugby Union opinion and discussion, for the fans, by the fans. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 04:31:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Boris Johnson http://www.therugbyblog.co.uk/the-last-ever-lions-tour/comment-page-1#comment-7714 Boris Johnson Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:29:37 +0000 http://www.therugbyblog.co.uk/?p=1785#comment-7714 The Lions defines everything that great about rugby, but if the team is not given the propoer respect and time, as McGeechan said, that there is a chance the Lions could become outdated. The Lions defines everything that great about rugby, but if the team is not given the propoer respect and time, as McGeechan said, that there is a chance the Lions could become outdated.

]]> By: Uncle Mat http://www.therugbyblog.co.uk/the-last-ever-lions-tour/comment-page-1#comment-7707 Uncle Mat Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:03:00 +0000 http://www.therugbyblog.co.uk/?p=1785#comment-7707 Even if it was an outdated concept in a purely rugby sense, the commercial viability will ensure it continues. As long as 30-40,000 people are willing to spend thousands every four years to travel with the tour - not to mention the shirts at 85 quid each (they probably generate more revenue than any other sports shirt in the world in the year of a tour), TV revenue, sponsorship, etc. Moreover, as a rugby tradition it is still as vibrant and exciting as ever. Players will always be keen to be part of the Lions (most talk about it as the pinnacle of their career), and tri-nations teams will always be hungry to take them on. Both tests so far have been crackers. Both the BIL and bok players would surely say that in rugby terms this has been very valuable experience for them. The standard of world rugby is better for it. There are, however, things we can do to tweak the approach to the tours to reflect changes in the global game. I've seen some good suggestions posted here recently. One interesting one was the idea of having warm up games at home and reducing the games against local teams, who often see their role as trying to inflict as many injuries as possible. One thing's for sure, the BIL team on Saturday is going to look severely depleted compared to the ideal starting XV (good job the series is over). The build up games is part of it, size of the squad and the willingness to call for back-ups are also relevant. Long live the Lions. Even if it was an outdated concept in a purely rugby sense, the commercial viability will ensure it continues. As long as 30-40,000 people are willing to spend thousands every four years to travel with the tour – not to mention the shirts at 85 quid each (they probably generate more revenue than any other sports shirt in the world in the year of a tour), TV revenue, sponsorship, etc.

Moreover, as a rugby tradition it is still as vibrant and exciting as ever. Players will always be keen to be part of the Lions (most talk about it as the pinnacle of their career), and tri-nations teams will always be hungry to take them on. Both tests so far have been crackers. Both the BIL and bok players would surely say that in rugby terms this has been very valuable experience for them. The standard of world rugby is better for it.

There are, however, things we can do to tweak the approach to the tours to reflect changes in the global game. I’ve seen some good suggestions posted here recently. One interesting one was the idea of having warm up games at home and reducing the games against local teams, who often see their role as trying to inflict as many injuries as possible. One thing’s for sure, the BIL team on Saturday is going to look severely depleted compared to the ideal starting XV (good job the series is over). The build up games is part of it, size of the squad and the willingness to call for back-ups are also relevant.

Long live the Lions.

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