Will the British and Irish Lions, and all their fans, tour to South Africa later this year, or will the Australians get the best of the series? Picture: Getty Images
By all accounts the Springboks’ series against the British and Irish Lions is heading for the inevitable – being staged Down Under in Australia.
It won’t come as great news to Bok supporters, but it seems likely to be the only workable option left to enable the tour to still take place.
Initially three options were put on the table – to continue with the tour in South Africa, but possibly without fans, move it to the United Kingdom, with or without fans, or postpone it.
Two of those options seem to have been thrown out the window – postponing it and having it take place without fans.
It has now emerged that the Lions bosses are growing on the idea of taking the tour to Australia, where matches will be allowed to be played in front of fans, with the Lions and SA Rugby sharing the profits and the Aussies covering their costs.
Former Bok legends such as Wynand Claassen and Kobus Wiese immediately dismissed the proposal of the tour taking place on Aussie soil, stressing it would lose everything that is special about a Lions tour and at the same time give the Australian rugby fans a feast of rugby and leave Bok supporters with nothing.
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However Rassie Erasmus, SA Rugby’s Director of Rugby, said recently the World Cup-winning Boks were desperate to play against the British & Irish Lions.
Last year, the Boks went through the entire season without playing a Test match as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has interrupted the regular rugby calendar, with their last outing being the 2019 Rugby World Cup final against England on 2 November 2019 in Tokyo, Japan.
In an ideal world, SA Rugby wouldn’t allow a Lions series against the Boks to not happen, and they are certainly doing everything possible for it to take place, but they are running out of time to secure the event for local fans.
As much as it will grate many, including the players, it seems the likelihood of the Lions touring across South Africa in July is slipping away. And there are not too many options left to consider.
The Boks versus the Lions in Australia is looking more and more like the only viable option, whether we like it or not.
Local fans might be confined to watching their World Cup winning team on the telly … again.
Rudolph Jacobs
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