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'Bring it home' - Lions should seriously consider moving Tests to UK - Andy Goode

By Andy Goode
Warren Gatland /Getty

British & Irish Lions Managing Director Ben Calveley has seemingly ruled out relocating the three Tests with South Africa to the UK but the option should still be on the table.

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I understand there are major complexities around creating a secure bubble and moving the location of that bubble and particularly the Test matches but if you can move them from Johannesburg to Cape Town, as looks likely with the second and third Tests, then it should be possible to move them to Twickenham.

I only use the home of English rugby as an example because I know it’s available on the date of all three of the Tests but I’m sure Cardiff, Edinburgh and other locations would be options as well.

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Will the Lions test series be cancelled? | Fanzone |

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Will the Lions test series be cancelled? | Fanzone |

It goes without saying but how good would it be to see fans watching what should be the pinnacle of our sport and atmospheres comparable with the scenes we’re seeing in football at the moment? Bring it home.

Stadiums and events across England are able to operate at full capacity from July 19, five days before the first Test is due to take place. I’m not sure what the South African Rugby Union or the Lions are really gaining from persevering with the original plans.

If we’re being honest, the reaction to this tour from people within the game, let alone the wider public, has been tepid at best and it isn’t even being noticed by a lot of people.

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On the pitch, aside from the problems of games being called off and players being ruled out because of positive test results, nobody is learning a huge amount from these warm-up games.

I know the tour organisers have to make sure there are games going ahead in order to fulfil broadcast commitments and to get minutes into the players’ legs ahead of the Tests, so playing the Sharks for a second time in four days is necessary, but it isn’t exciting anyone and we aren’t gleaning much in terms of selection.

Lions player ratings
Bundee Aki and Owen Farrell /PA

That said, I really feel that Bundee Aki is one player who has put his hand up and is guaranteed to start the Tests now at inside centre, particularly given the opposition and the style that Warren Gatland is likely to want to play.

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Clearly, that means Owen Farrell, who was named as a centre, would be in a three-way battle for the number 10 jersey with Dan Biggar and Finn Russell and the Welshman is surely in pole position at the moment.

Gatland said he had no preconceived ideas about Test selection before the start of the tour but that’s just a line for the media, he’s bound to have had some concept of what his starting XV would look like when he named the squad.

With the quality of the opposition in these warm-up games being relatively poor compared to previous tours, it is difficult for players to play their way into his starting XV. Everyone is excelling against the likes of the Sigma Lions and the Sharks so it’s difficult to judge.

Farrell certainly falls into that category after a poor season with England and a campaign in the second tier of English rugby with Saracens. He has a lot of credit in the bank but you feel he needs really strong performances against tough teams in the build-up to push his case and he isn’t getting that.

Lions Calveley
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

In the back three, I think Josh Adams would have been earmarked as a starter anyway because of his history with Gatland but he obviously looks nailed on and then I think it’ll be two from Liam Williams, Stuart Hogg and Anthony Watson.

It’s more wide open in other positions but there’s so much talent at Gatland’s disposal. It’d just be great to see them playing in front of 80,000 fans on these shores in these exceptional circumstances, capturing the hearts of the home nations even more, and that should still be a possibility.

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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