2021 British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa could be cancelled to save home unions - report
Next year’s British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa could be delayed or cancelled entirely as the four Home Nations battle to stay afloat financially, according to a report out of the UK.
The Mirror claims that the financial strain of the coronavirus outbreak has left England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales all desperate to play both their November tests and their remaining Six Nations fixtures that were postponed earlier this year.
The pandemic has left those unions – as well as all of rugby worldwide – in a dire economic position, with The Mirror suggesting that the four nations could be looking at a £80m deficit should those matches not go ahead.
Fears of bankruptcy among the Irish, Scottish and Welsh unions have reportedly led to discussions between officials about creating contingency plans to re-schedule home fixtures next year as a top priority in an effort to generate some much needed revenue.
That would, in turn, force the 2021 Lions tour to be postponed or even scrapped entirely as the home unions scramble to stay afloat.
COVID-19 has already seen plenty of rugby delayed or canned this year, with England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales’ July tours of Japan, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand under severe threat of cancellation.
The British and Irish nations are also scheduled to host the likes of the All Blacks, Wallabies, Springboks, Argentina, Japan, Fiji and Tonga in November in the same international window that the four delayed Six Nations fixtures are set to take place.
While it’s still unclear whether these matches will go ahead, The Mirror reports that those home fixtures can generate between £4m to £8m for the host side, as much as four times the amount each Home Nation can make from a Lions tour.
Adding to the dilemma is the predicament surrounding the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics, which have been pushed back a year to clash with the scheduled Lions tour.
That will force players from South Africa and the Home Nations to weigh up whether to chase an Olympic gold medal in sevens, or to pursue their Lions ambitions.
The Sunwolves may have played their last match of Super Rugby, and it now appears they won't be playing in a proposed new Japanese domestic competition either.https://t.co/A1Cnjxw1dM
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) May 4, 2020
A delayed tour, however, could free up players from both camps to challenge for both campaigns, although that would complicate contractual matters with Lions head coach Warren Gatland.
The former Ireland and Wales boss was granted a specific one-year sabbatical clause to take charge of a third consecutive Lions tour as part of his four-year deal with the Chiefs in Super Rugby.
The postponement of the eight-match tour, though, would throw a spanner in the works – not only for Gatland and both sets of players, but also for the estimated 35,000 Lions fans who were expected to have travelled to South Africa for the series.
Former Wales and Lions great Phil Bennett told The Mirror it would be “heart-breaking” if the upcoming tour was forced into cancellation, but stressed that a Lions series would be no good if it was to the detriment of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
“We are talking about survival of the game itself. Those nations have to get money in through hosting international games in order to keep the game going in those countries,” he said.
“If the unions go bankrupt, then the grass roots doesn’t get looked after and rugby at that level could simply die.
“People in Wales are already talking about dozens of clubs disappearing because there is no income coming in.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments