The Lions are an irrelevance, except for the dollars generated

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

The replica Lions shirt in the RFU shop costs £99.99 - a mark-up, I suspect, of around £95 over the production costs. And the back page advertisement from Thomas Cook in your newspaper offers tours starting from £1999 to see one "Test" and £2499 to see two.

And that pretty much sums up the rationale for this year's commercial bonanza in South Africa.

The Lions in 2005 were not humiliated by the All Blacks because of the deficiencies of Alastair Campbell nor by the mistakes of Clive Woodward. They were beaten because a Southern Hemisphere side will never again be beaten by a rag, tag and bobtail assemblage of British Isles players, however individually talented these players may be.

The South Africans are full time professionals, both individually and as a unit.

The hastily assembled Lions cannot possibly be expected to gel together as efficiently and skilfully as the Springboks â€" they will be lucky to avoid defeat by less than twenty points in any of their matches against the Boks.

In the days of amateur international rugby there was a logic and, yes, a romance about the Lions that led to some heroic achievements.

But in the professional era, a side which plays together continuously for a year or more, as the South Africans will have done, will have a huge edge over a mishmash of players who cannot possibly be as familiar with one another as their opponents will be.

The only justification for the continued existence of the Lions is the commercial bonanza that a Lions tour creates. For me, that is insufficient reason for the tour to go ahead - and certainly there is no case at all for international caps to continue to be awarded for these one-sided and irrelevant matches.[/b]

http://www.theroar.com.au/2009/02/18/the-l...ed-by-the-tour/

Any thoughts?

 

[Prestwick]

That this man is a hypocrite, a creep and a one eyed to the point of gouging out the eye nearest the British Isles?

 

[feicarsinn]

complete and utter shite. if the lions cant compete how is it that the barbarians, who are assembled with less preparation still manage to get results.

peh im angry now

 

[Prestwick]

Its really annoying when institutions such as this venerated and noble group get trashed on a regular basis by the ignorant and pretentious egged on by the SH Fans.

If someone put out an article telling New Zealand to "move on" from the All Black label and telling them this "maori" stuff is all out of fashion and what not there'd be a riot and rightly so.

 

[gingergenius]

What sets rugby apart is it's fantastic traditions. We have fantastic out-of-the-ordinary matches which give the game charm.

It's wonderful that we have a sport where International teams still do conventional tours; and who wouldn't agree that the best game of the Autumn was All Blacks vs Munster... with the seemingly inbalanced contest between club and country.

Similarly, how many other sports in the world can have a world-famous club that only recruits players temporarily, doesn't play in a league and gets to play against the top international teams... and it's almost compulsory for them to play attractive rugby!

How many sports have things like the haka; how many sports have such vicious rivalries between countries; how many sports can have one-off games like the Autumn Tests, which mean the world to the countries involved; how many sports can have groups of countries join together to form a one-off team like the Lions or the PIs? In fact, are there any other examples where the British Isles are united in anything?

Rugby has been professional for 15 years now, and in that time we've managed to get highly organised and competitive national and international club competitions that are hallmarks of well-marketed and commercially successful sport. And of course we've lost things like the tours which lasted months and about 50 games. But we've managed to maintain all the quirky and very much 'old boy' type aspects that make the game unique, and at the centre of everything is tradition - each international side has a national style of play.

So I agree with this guy that the Lions will probably get a stuffing in SA. I also agree that there are huge commercial benefits to be made from Lions tours. But this shouldn't overshadow the fact that the Lions is a vital cog in rugby's unique appeal; and also for the South Africans it will offer a chance to test themselves against a whole new international team; for the Lions it will be a huge honour and measure of their own skill that they can get into a side reprasentative of 4 nations.

 

[dundeesmiffy]

I mean, yes, I'm an advocate of change in rugby. I want to see some things change to make them a little more fair/exciting. But this guy, is quite obviously some sort of special.

 

[C A Iversen]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Prestwick @ Feb 21 2009, 06:25 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Its really annoying when institutions such as this venerated and noble group get trashed on a regular basis by the ignorant and pretentious egged on by the SH Fans.

If someone put out an article telling New Zealand to "move on" from the All Black label and telling them this "maori" stuff is all out of fashion and what not there'd be a riot and rightly so.[/b]

Please don't use us for your example. You wonder where my tirade came from last week? You shoot first and them say "who me?" all the time. Okay to be fair it was just the one comment about the SH fans egging this kind of opinion on, but what a generalism. I totally and utterly reject the article in the op and was about to come to the verbal assistance of the NH. The Lions are a strong institution and I have no doubt that they always will be.

I still stand by that, but damn if it isn't made hard to be supportive sometimes.

 

[Prestwick]

Okay, CA, before we troll..

That was a positive example. There should be a sodding riot if the values and traditions that we all hold dear and share are threatened.

Just check the post before you send in the knee-jerk squad.

EDIT: Fair enough about the SH fans quote though, I got a little annoyed in the moment and thats what happened.

 

[Bullitt]

Come on now, this is an article by the same pillock who thinks Harry Ellis was Englands best player against Italy. Says enough about his opinions really - He's entitled to them, but he's consistantly way off the mark.

 

[Steve-o]

You get the feeling the only reason he thinks it's a waste of time is because Springbok rugby is very strong at the moment. He's more critical of the possibility the Lions might not play well because the nations that the Lions compose of have been on the receiving end against the Boks in recent times, especially England, rather than being critical of the Lions' concept. He seems bitter because there will still be big financial gains eventhough it's poised to be a one sided affair on the field.
He's still an idiot though.

 

[man007]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (snoopy snoopy dog dog @ Feb 20 2009, 06:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE

The replica Lions shirt in the RFU shop costs £99.99 - a mark-up, I suspect, of around £95 over the production costs. And the back page advertisement from Thomas Cook in your newspaper offers tours starting from £1999 to see one "Test" and £2499 to see two.[/b]

http://www.theroar.com.au/2009/02/18/the-l...ed-by-the-tour/

Any thoughts?
[/b][/quote]

I think he is right at some points

 

[shazbooger]

It makes money.

The players (on both sides) place it on a par, or above anything they ever achieved in the game.

The fans travel in greater numbers than for any other event barring a WC (or a Munster "day out").

Its watched around the world by rugby fans from all nations.

etc etc etc etc.

How can it not be relevant?

 

[nick_w]

This idiot claims that it wasn't Woodward or Cambell that proved to be the Lions downfall, but the fact that the All Blacks were better. Whilst I don't deny that the AB's were certainly better, only someone with rose tinted glasses and no concept of the game whatsoever could think that Woodward wasn't to blame. Amongst other reasons, one of the main aspects behind the loss was a lack of team spirit. It is well documented that he had pretty much picked his test team before he stepped on the plane, and a fair number of them were English, which was simply stupid as it wasn't on form.

I believe that given the right team ethos and right environment, you can make a "rag-tag" team world beaters. Geech's did this back in '97 by having a monumental p*ss up before setting off. It made the players a lot more relaxed and meant that everyone could relax and bond as a team. This was followed up by that Kangaroo court session they had. I know it was only a few years after the game turned professional, but I reckon this could still happen.

True, a lot of it now days is commercial, but lets be honest, name me a sporting competition that isn't. Sponsorship, television rights etc. They are part of the modern game, and need to be to keep the standard where it is at the moment.

So the Lions might not win, but everyone will up their game when they put on the red, £99, jersey. If the Lions are eradicated, it will severely damage the game as it will be a sign that tradition is dying.