After Saturday - We Really Must Have A Re-think On The Lions

HALF WAY through my 75^th year, I have never felt as concerned about the path the game of rugby is going down than I did last night. These are dangerous times for the world's greatest team game, and we should all be concerned at the path we are on.

One hundred and thirty-three years ago, when the Original British Lions set off on their epic first tour, on 8 March, 1888, they were going at the behest of a couple of guys better-known for organising and running cricketing tours to Australasia. That first Lions trip, from which the players didn't return until 11 November, 1888, was therefore a business opportunity, subsidised by amateur players.

So, forget all this bullshit about promoting the game, the Lions has, for 133 years, been a purely business venture. Until the advent of Open Rugby in 1995, it was the host Union which benefitted; they were guaranteed full houses for the internationals, depending on how well they promoted their particular leg of the tour, their provincial unions also benefitted, and, while they had to take a lot of hard knocks along the way, the players also benefitted.

They got to see parts of the world they could only otherwise dream about visiting, they got to eat, sleep and live the game they loved and they enhanced their reputations along the way.

Sure, in the Amateur era, some suffered from going. While perhaps an English player, who was; “something in the city,” could be guaranteed paid leave of absence by his firm, who knew he would be an asset when he returned. A Welsh Lion, say a teacher, might not be so-lucky – the left-wing Labour politicians who paid his wages might wish to make a statement against apartheid in South Africa, by denying him his salary while he was away.

In some cases, the local rugby clubs chipped-in to look after his out-of-pocket expenses and to see his family back home was looked after, or, on returning, perhaps, to make-up for what he had lost, the player would “go north,” to Rugby League, for a handsome signing-on fee.

Others perhaps, on the back of a good Lions tour, would come home to a better job. Big Gordon Brown used to tell the tale of meeting another Lion after the Scotland v Wales Five Nations match, six months on from a Lions tour. “Where are you working now?” asked Broon.

The reply was: “Oh! I'm playing for Swansea.”

“I know that,” said Broon. “But, what's your job?”

“Officially I work in public relations, but, the reality is, I play for Swansea.” One of the Welsh club's biggest sponsors had come up with a job which enabled the Welsh star to quit teaching and simply train and play – with the odd round of golf and glad-handing thrown in to justify his salary.

That was in the 1970s, where other Welsh men, in their first Murrayfield programme notes, would be described as “steel workers,” or “truck drivers.” Two years later, the same player would be “a brewery rep,” or “a building society official.”

Lions who were farmers, would get a chance, when on tour, to see how opposing players, also farmers, worked their land, bringing cross-fertilisation on ideas and practices. This worked in reverse, there is the legendary tale of Colin Meads letting rip at what they saw as cheap imports of New Zealand lamb, to a group of Yorkshire farmers in the Otley club house, during one All Blacks Tour.

Apparently they shut-up pretty quick, once 'Pinetree” took the gloves off and explained the facts of farming life in King Country – a part of New Zealand not all that different from North Yorkshire.

On a real Lions' tour, while some of the hotels into which the squad was placed for provincial games were clearly owned by the Bates family, that was part of life's rich tapestry – something to be recalled at a club dinner some 25-years later: “Remember that shit hole they put us in in North Transvaal,” would have the old Lions present chuckling.

Then there were the parts of the Tour which are seldom discussed. One of the favourites among rugby journalists is the tale of the Scottish rugby writer, for one of the big London papers, who could hardly get a player to speak to him during the Tour.

His “crime,” he was leading the “Jockey's Championship,” by some distance, having bedded more local ladies than any of the players, who were a wee bit put out by his success.

That was then, this is now. Somewhere between 1995 and today, The Lions realised, they had a brand worth selling and cashing-in on. Why should the Australian, New Zealand and South African Unions enjoy the benefits of the Lions' brand. By commercialising the brand, selling replica shirts and so forth, rugby in the British Isles could also benefit.

And, while an all-expenses-paid trip to the other side of the world was seen as a nice little perk for the amateur-era players, today's professionals have other concerns: image rights, a sense of entitlement as to the level of hotel in which they will stay, while the big English clubs who employ so-many of them see their needs and concerns to be above those of the Lions.

Back in the day, in the season after a Lions Tour, some players would take a break between the final Test and a couple of weeks or so before the following season's National Trials. Indeed there is a legend in Scotland of how, after his efforts in South Africa on the 1955 Tour, which lasted from departure in early June, to their return at the end of September, Jim Greenwood played a mere eight games in season 1955-56: four internationals for Scotland, the two national trials, one game for North and Midlands and a mere single game for his club, Dunfermline.

His 2021 equivalent, Edinburgh's Hamish Watson, will be back in Edinburgh by the end of next week. Edinburgh's season in the new United Rugby Championship kicks-off in late September, you can be sure, Mike Blair, his new coach, will want “Mish” in his side from the get-go, no lengthy breaks and easing themselves in for today's professionals.

And, with Scotland due to face Tonga, Australia, South Africa and Japan on four successive Saturdays from 30 October, 'Mish' will definitely not be getting much of a post-tour break.

Now the Lions' tour Test matches don't count for World Rugby ranking points. To my mind, well-paid though the players might be for participating, and given there is still considerable honour in being a Lion – the Lions are a busted flush.

OK, up until they lost yesterday, the Lions were Unofficial World Champions – and you saw the abuse I got on TOL for pointing this out. So, in real rugby terms, the Lions don't matter – it is surely time to rethink the whole concept.

And, if nothing else, it would free-up a lot of space on twitter, with all these English and Welsh supporters complaining about the refereeing, and the Bokke fans gloating – a 180 degree turn-around from the previous weekend.

No, if we must have ultra-nationalism in sport, let's do it through real countries, rather than commercialised team concepts.