by @curates_egg
It's the mid-way point in the rugby world cup cycle and that means the British and Irish Lions tour. There's certainly no shortage of interest on the British Isles but is the concept still relevant in the modern game?
Last week's squad announcement was the culmination of more than a year of speculation and intrigue in rugby circles in Britain and Ireland, with players, fans and pundits alike still buying into the Lions hype. Players have been on tenterhooks, pundits have been scrambling over themselves to pick their Lions XV, and fans have debated the squad after almost every game, no matter how relevant.
The Lions concept certainly has a long back-story: this year's Lions tour to Australia comes 125 years after the first combined rugby union side from Great Britain and Ireland to tour the Southern Hemisphere back in 1888.
Rugby is a sport with a proud heritage, so it borders on blasphemy to call an institution like the Lions into question...but the game has undergone a massive transformation in the last quarter Century. From the first rugby world cup in 1987 to the advent of professionalism a few years later, the sport is now unrecognisable from when Webb Ellis first intentionally handled the ball.
The roar of the professional game
Clearly, the demands on players in the professional game are much greater now than they were 125 years ago. Modern rugby players are professional athletes, who are contracted to professional clubs or franchises. While the players themselves and the national rugby unions benefit financially, the clubs/franchises/provinces and their fans do not and can be left to foot the bill. Can their participation in an ad hoc tour, with the injury risk that this brings, really be justified in the professional game?
Clubs/provinces/franchises and fans alike are often frustrated when key squad players return from Lions tours with injuries or the infamous post-Lions form dip and fatigue (having had their seasons extended by 6 weeks). Leinster and Ireland fans were deprived of the player of our generation for almost an entire season, after the shameful end to his tour in New Zealand.
British and Irish pride?
Even if you like the concept of an all-star team (à la US sports) competing in the professional era, is the British and Irish Lions format the most appropriate? The grouping of the 4 nations certainly has little contemporary relevance - and probably hasn't in 100 years (since Irish independence and the rise of rugby in France).
Surely a 6 Nations all-star team would be far more relevant as a concept in the international era. Or why not even go the whole hog and make rugby only the second sport to have an all-European all-star sports team? That way you would be opening the door to outstanding players that would otherwise not have the opportunity to do so to compete in world-beating sides, against other world-beating teams: think Mamuka Gorgodze.
Personally, I find the concept of the Barbarians a far more endearing anachronism in the modern game. The invite-only club, which puts together teams for one-off games always aims to play the game in as open and entertaining a manner as possible...and doesn't add an extra 6 weeks onto players busy calendars.
Pass the remote
It will be hard for me to muster much more of a 'meh' for the Lions tour this summer (although I am entertained by their utter ineptitude at social media). If it is on a television nearby and it is raining and I have nothing else planned, I might watch the tests...but I will be partly doing so through my hands, hoping none of the Leinster or Irish players gets injured. Let the lynching commence.
@curates_egg : Expat Irish rugby fan living on the continent but regularly travelling to Leinster and Ireland rugby matches. Strong believer in rugby as a family game and a fair sport.
