Creative ideas can still turn Lions tour into a real rugby experience

Confirmation of the Rainbow Cup and that the British and Irish Lions tour will take place in SA and not somewhere else came as good news, but the reception to the announcements should be tempered by the reality of the times we live in.

The Rainbow Cup’s published schedule does not include any confirmed cross-hemisphere fixtures, with just the matches between the regular PRO14 teams and the SA derbies listed. There’s a three-week gap for SA teams between when the derby phase of the competition ends and the start of the phase that will see local sides pitted against European sides.

That serves as a reminder that there will probably be quarantine requirements to be adhered to when the South Africans travel. It could also be an indication that the organisation of that phase remains challenging and perhaps the organisers have a few hoops to jump through still.

The times of Covid are fluid and unpredictable and it is hard to say with certainty what the situation will be nearly two months from now. The last we heard though was that there were two possible venues for an SA bio-bubble — Dubai or Dublin.

The decision that the Lions tour will take place in SA, if it does take place, was the right one. A Lions tour played in the UK or Ireland just wouldn’t be a Lions tour.

Though some argue it would be better to play it there than run the risk of it not happening at all, I don’t agree. Holding the Lions series north of the equator would have put the whole concept and ethos of Lions tours at risk, and had the potential to undermine the popularity and even the future of what to world rugby is second only to the Rugby World Cup in terms of the attention it attracts.

For while it seems like an outside shot at this point, the prospect of SA Rugby getting their wish to have 50% full stadiums is not as far-fetched as it might appear.

But obviously a Lions tour to SA when stadiums are empty isn’t much of a Lions tour either.

The red wave of overseas fans that descends on the local cities when the Lions are in town is very much the essence of a Lions tour, and if there are no foreigners in town then the boost to the local hospitality industry doesn’t happen either. That is why it would have made far more sense and been more acceptable to rugby fans both sides of the equator for the tour to be postponed until it would be possible for stadiums to be filled and for Lions fans to travel.

It remains a blight on World Rugby that they couldn’t find a way to step in and put global rugby interests ahead of the selfish interests of the individual unions for whom a postponement would have been inconvenient.

Had the Lions organisers made a more definitive ruling on whether a 2021 tour was viable around September 2020, when it was pretty obvious SA would still be affected by Covid, maybe it would have been possible to get overseas unions to reschedule to accommodate the Lions.

Yet while a delay was inadvisable back then, I’d go in the opposite direction now and suggest the final details of this series should be delayed as long as it is possible to do so.

For while it seems like an outside shot at this point, the prospect of SA Rugby getting their wish to have 50% full stadiums is not as far-fetched as it might appear. Of course, if the country is in the midst of the third or fourth wave of the pandemic come the end of July and into August, then there’s no question that stadiums should remain closed, as they have been for the duration of SA rugby’s return to play.

If, however, there is a trough in the number of infections, surely there are ways that rugby and the government can work together to make some kind of crowd presence at stadiums possible.

After all, the games are happening outside.

If, for example, the games were all rescheduled to be played on the highveld, Nelspruit and Durban, the weather should be temperate. In other words, masked spectators can sit outside in relative safety in those areas, provided there is sufficient spacing between them.

What would require focus is the queuing system and what would need to be done to eliminate the risks that would be inherent if toilets were crowded before or after a game.

That’s another reason I’m thinking Durban — there’s plenty of space on the Kings Park outer fields to present an innovative solution to this problem. Obviously, stadium bars would have to be closed unfortunately, at least indoor ones.

I’m not a medical expert and may have this all wrong, but if there is a will, surely there is a potential way of ensuring that some kind of arrangement can be reached that does not compromise safety. At least one that ensures that safety is no more compromised than it is when people visit shopping malls.