South Africa not changing Lions tour dates for now
Although there are no immediate plans to change the dates of the 2021 British & Irish Lions tour, SA Rugby are aware that the Covid-19 pandemic could change that.
A report in The Mirror over the weekend suggested the Lions’ tour to South Africa could be postponed or cancelled. That would be done to free up space on the Test calendar for England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to host fixtures next July and boost revenue hit hard by the global pandemic.
This year’s Six Nations is still incomplete and while it was reported that each of the countries sending players on the Lions tour would receive around £2m, they could generate twice that money by hosting a single Test at a sold-out stadium.
The three-Test Lions tour is scheduled to start against the Stormers in Cape Town on July 3 and the three internationals against the Springboks are set to take place on consecutive weekends from July 24 onwards.
🗣️ "I think there could be an appetite for putting two windows together. It could be north going south in one month and then immediately afterwards the south would come north the next month."
🏉 Sir Bill Beaumont reveals plans for global tournament. 👉 https://t.co/XzECisurgM pic.twitter.com/WLfwbXii8K
— Planet Rugby (@PlanetRugby) May 4, 2020
The tour dates also clash with the schedule for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics which has been postponed by a year due to Covid-19. Despite that, both the Lions and SA Rugby have previously said they will not move the tour due to that.
“While we continue to look forward to an incredible Test series and tour against the British & Irish Lions in 2021, and there are no planned changes, it would be remiss of us not to explore various scenarios for a possible date change caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” SA Rugby said in a statement on Monday.
World Rugby will reportedly review the use of the July Test window in upcoming years and could move Lions tours, which happen every four years in either South Africa, Australia or New Zealand, to later in the season.
There are talks on an October-November window that would see northern hemisphere sides travel south for the first month and then host fixtures in the second month as part of a move to standardise a global calendar.