Warren Gatland faces tricky decisions before Thursday’s naming of a squad facing only eight matches in South AfricaThe squad announcement for the British & Irish Lions is usually rugby’s equivalent of a general election, preceded by a frenzy of speculation, leaks and vitriolic exchanges. So a social media blackout the weekend before might be no bad thing.This year – or rather this quadrennial – given the ravages of a global pandemic, the Lions do not know, literally, whether they are coming or going. Refreshingly, that seems to have dampened much of the febrility of the pre-pick posturing, even before the lights were dimmed on social media. Not a leak, either, to be felt down the back of the neck. It’s...
The wider issue for South Africa and Argentina is where their future lies in the professional gameThe format for next season’s European Champions Cup seems so complicated in its design that it could be an offshoot of the Duckworth-Lewis method. Two pools of 12 teams, who will each play four matches, will be layered by tiers with no two clubs from the same country facing each other.An earlier plan divided the 24 teams into eight groups of three with the sides playing each other home and away. It was more straightforward than the one that has now been decided on, but with the coronavirus restrictions on travel, distancing and gathering looking as if they will remain in place well into...
Clinging to the concept of survival of the fittest could bring the game to its knees, even in areas once thought to be strongestFuture historians will pinpoint the past few days as the moment global rugby union came face to face with stark reality. Like an iceberg few imagined would ever melt, huge cracks and fissures are threatening to widen and cause a ripple effect even in places where the sport is theoretically supposed to be strongest.It is not so much the inevitable postponement of all this July’s Tests, with the severe financial pain that entails, that is the giveaway. Nor is it the sight of players still jogging around in small groups, uncertain when the government will permit a...
Fifty years ago South Africa were battered on and off the pitch in Britain and Ireland as apartheid felt the fury of the peopleThe tour that changed international sport ended 50 years ago. South Africa, No 1 in the world now and vying with New Zealand for supremacy then, returned home after four torrid months in Britain and Ireland when they were dogged by anti-apartheid protests and failed to win any of their four Tests.It was a rude awakening for the vast majority of the squad who had little experience of the world outside their homeland, their isolation fostered by the lack of television in the country. Related: Springboks’ victory driven by a strain of desire few others can comprehend...
South Africa’s World Cup winning captain is one of six uplifting figures to receive awards from the Rugby Union Writers’ ClubIn central London on Monday night the assembled cast of almost 500 guests was a typically eclectic one. It always is at the annual Rugby Union Writers’ Club dinner, where no writing occurs and the dining can be a secondary concern. Sandwiched into the bleak no-man’s-land between Christmas and the Six Nations, flicking two defiant fingers at dry January, it is a reliable test of both character and stamina.In addition to the camaraderie this year’s list of award winners was especially uplifting. The main Pat Marshall Award for the individual who has made the greatest impact on rugby in the...