Lions tour has mutated from romantic adventure into more frenzied orgy

Talk of Jonathan Sexton getting the Lions captaincy could prove wide of the mark. Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Michael Aylwin

May 02 2021 02:30 AM

The squad announcement for the Lions is usually rugby’s equivalent of a general election, preceded by a frenzy of speculation, leaks and vitriolic exchanges. So a social media blackout the weekend before might be no bad thing.

This year, the Lions do not know, literally, whether they are coming or going.

Refreshingly, that seems to have dampened much of the febrility of the pre-pick posturing, even before the lights were dimmed on social media. Not a leak, either, to be felt down the back of the neck. It’s as if no one can be bothered.

Which is a crying shame if you are South Africa. For the big three of the southern hemisphere, the tri-quadrennial windfall of a Lions tour is a precious income stream indeed. Some might describe it as a critical one. In the case of Australia they would probably be right.

South Africa’s dependence on Lions lucre probably sits somewhere in between that of Australia and New Zealand.

Before anyone questions why and for how much longer the travelling circus should only ever visit those three countries, South Africa may or may not lean on their southern counterparts to share any spoils from future tours, now that it seems certain they will be forgoing most of the revenue from 2021’s instalment.

All of which is to demonstrate just how far the Lions tour has mutated from its original conception as a dreamingly romantic adventure through foreign lands, building slowly and luxuriously to the climax of a Test series.

How it has mutated, in other words, from its foundation as an amateur conceit. A bit like rugby in general, one might say.

These days the Lions tour is less romance, more frenzied orgy. Where once a Lion could prowl across the savannah with a glint in his eye, now the high-rise buildings have shot up all around his habitat, heightening the mania, diminishing his status.

This Lions tour will be eight matches long. A ninth fixture has been organised before the tour party leaves, against Japan at Murrayfield. On the same day as the Premiership final. Back to politics.

Traditionally, the tour to South Africa is the most brutal of all. And, as has been the case ever since the World Cup was dreamed up, South Africa will host this one as world champions.

Normally, the dynamic requires the Lions to find cohesion as quickly as possible. This time, though, the Springboks have their own challenges.

The virus means they have not played since their great triumph in 2019. Of the team that started the final, eight play overseas, while the others will play their first games in the Rainbow Cup, which starts for the South African teams this weekend.

The Lions will travel with more expectation than normal. Wales feel as if they could have beaten the Springboks in the World Cup semi-final; England feel as if they should have in the final, had they not been so enamoured with their performance against New Zealand, who had comfortably outplayed the Springboks on the opening weekend of the tournament.

The dilemmas facing Warren Gatland, though, are tricky and manifold, that political angle as delicate as ever.

All eyes will be on the Exeter count on Thursday. Eight of their players featured in the Six Nations, for three different countries; then add in the claims of the returning Jack Nowell and every punter’s favourite wildcards, the Simmonds brothers.

None of these will attend the Lions training camp in Jersey, assuming Exeter make the Premiership final. The claims of Callum Sheedy, Kyle Sinckler, Ben Earl and Max Malins might be similarly affected with Bristol.

Even the Saracens contingent, experimenting with life in the Championship as preparation for international rugby, are due to play the two-legged promotion final across the Jersey camp.

Under normal circumstances, there would be healthy representation from all these clubs. If Gatland’s selection is affected by these considerations, which, as a realist, he will feel it has to be, the romantic purity of the Lions concept is further tarnished.

And then to the question of captain. None of the four national captains is quite ideal.

Alun Wyn Jones and Johnny Sexton are of a certain age with enough of a fight on their hands to make the team; Owen Farrell cannot be considered an automatic selection either; and Stuart Hogg, even if he is, which is also debatable, is a little removed from the heat at full-back.

A good Lions tour selection should involve the odd curveball. Sam Simmonds might be one. But the identity of captain might be another. CJ Stander, in his homeland, is the type of player Gatland is likely to favour against a Springbok, but the feeling that Maro Itoje is a future Lions captain may just be consummated on Thursday.

If it is, one person who will smile is Nigel Wray. The £1.6m (€1.84m)he paid for a 30pc share in Itoje’s image rights, for which he was deemed to have overspent by £800,000, looks a steal. Is it not remarkable that such a sentence can be written of a rugby player? The game has changed indeed. The Lions are about to fight once more for their place in it.

Observer