International Rugby Board agrees 10-year tour schedule

[TRF_Cymro]

Traditional tours are back on the agenda after rugby union's governing body revealed a new 10-year plan.

Since the game went professional in 1995, one-off Tests between the game's major powers have become the norm.

But from 2012, northern hemisphere sides will go south for tours featuring two or three Tests against the same team, plus mid-week games, every June.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/8688943.stm​

 

[Haysie]

**** yeah!

 

[User1245]

A step in the right direction for sure!

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

New Zealand was pushing very hard for this. Not sure how much Australia and South Africa backed it up or lead it, but this is great!

 

[SelimNiai]

Good news for rugby

 

[nickdnz]

Bring Back Buck?!

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Good news,
I like the Internationals taking on normal teams, like the Sarries/Tigers V SA matches last year (and not only because SA lost )

 

[durbutter]

Munster to take a few more scalps hopefully!!

 

[Intercept King JDV]

England to tour South Africa twice before 2019

The Springboks will play a three-Test home series against England (twice), France and Ireland in the six years either side of the 2015 Rugby World Cup as a result of an International Rugby Board decision to return to 'old-style' rugby touring.

The Boks will host England for a three-Test series in June 2012 as rugby makes an eagerly-awaited return to the touring style of the amateur era.

The England series will be the first 'long' tour of South Africa by a single nation in 16 years - since the three-test series against New Zealand in 1996 - following the ratification of the IRB's fixture schedule for the period 2012 to 2019 earlier this week.

The only conventional tours South Africa has received in that time were by the British and Irish Lions (1997 and 2009) who tour each of the SANZAR nations every 12 years.

"I think everyone in rugby has been yearning for a return to old style tours and the IRB has now been able to deliver," said SARU president, Oregan Hoskins.

"We experience the drama that a proper tour delivers every time the British and Irish Lions appear and both the tourists and the host nations in the Southern hemisphere were keen to see this change."

The Springboks' other three-test series will take place in 2016 (Ireland), 2017 (France) and 2018 (England) with the 2013 and 2014 seasons being taken up with the visit of combinations of Scotland, Wales and Italy.

Inbound Tests are not scheduled for the World Cup years of 2015 and 2019.

There has been no change to the format of the Springboks' end of season tours. They will continue to play a combination of Six Nations teams, playing each country three times in the six years of the IRB Tours Schedule.

The Springboks Inbound (June) Test schedule is:

2011 No inbound Tests RWC
2012 England Three Tests
2013 Italy One Test Scotland One Test Tier 2 nation One Test
2014 Wales Two Tests Scotland One Test
2015 No inbound Tests RWC
2016 Ireland Three Tests
2017 France Three Tests
2018 England Three Tests.

Source

Oh yeah this is wonderful news!Just picture England playing Griquas on a rock hard & dry Kimberley pitch in a mid-week game

 

[Boggle]

Hells to the YEAH !

Loving this, I was telling some of my friends just the other day that I would kill to see some proper tours happen again. So now
we've got a chance to watch WP, the Blue Bulls and perhaps a few other provinces get some revenge for those Sarries and Tigers
matches.



I mean the tests are great, but it's the matches against the provinces that actually get me really excited, I mean the WP vs B&I Lions
game was one of the best matches for me during the tour last year. And that game against the Emerging boks was equally entertaining.