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The Lions tour will be a mere facsimile of what it should be amid the Covid third wave

The Lions tour will be a mere facsimile of what it should be amid the Covid third wave
Lodewyk De Jager of South Africa wins a line-out during the Rugby World Cup 2019 quarterfinal match between Japan and South Africa. (Photo: Cameron Spencer / Getty Images)

Would, should, could… Instead, the 2021 Lions tour will be like a cowboy riding into a deserted town on a lame horse as tumbleweeds spiral by.

First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.

I want nothing more than to see the Springboks – the world champions – coming up against the British & Irish Lions this year. Nothing in rugby matches this tour, and few sporting events from any other code come close.

The Lions arrive on 27 June and will play eight games in South Africa. Under normal circumstances, the coming seven weeks would be a festival of rugby, competition, tension and pride.

South Africa, as hosts to rugby’s biggest show outside of the World Cup, would be on full display to the world. The Springboks, as reigning world champions, would be under severe scrutiny to underline that hard-earned title.

The rarity of Lions tours, the outrageous concept of putting players from four different countries, who are usually fierce rivals, together at short notice and asking them to topple a unified team in a hostile environment, is a monumental challenge. And it’s what makes a Lions tour unique.

Lions’ players are picked as much for their personality traits as for their rugby brilliance. On a tour like this, a few disruptive influences can contaminate the entire party. And unlike any “normal” sports team, sometimes, by the time those bad influences reveal themselves, it’s far too late to do anything about it.

The Lions would play the courteous tourists off the field, visiting schools and old age homes, attending breakfast talks and dinners, regaling those who paid R3,000 a plate with tales of years gone by. Many Springboks, current and past, would do the same.

Upwards of 40,000 fans from Britain and Ireland would’ve attended the tour and the mammoth FNB Stadium should have had 94,700 people in it for the third Test. It was supposed to be the biggest crowd at a Lions Test since Ellis Park in 1955.

More than R6-billion in direct and indirect spending should have flowed into the SA economy in the next six weeks.

Would, should, could… Instead, the 2021 Lions tour will be like a cowboy riding into a deserted town on a lame horse as tumbleweeds spiral by. There will be buildings and signs of life, but no people or atmosphere.

Stadiums will be empty, only providing a playing surface for what should be career-defining games. They will be visually barren, little more than empty, echoing cathedrals to the devastation the pandemic has wrought. Thousands of empty plastic seats on bitterly cold winter evenings will greet the players.

Away from the stadiums, the pubs, bars, sports clubs, school grounds and fan parks will also be deserted as the full scale of the third wave of the pandemic reaches its peak during the tour.

Fans mingling in hotel foyers to greet a player, or get a selfie, will not happen. Players from both sides will be on a monotonous routine of hotel, training ground, match venue, hotel. Their own personal Groundhog Day hell.

They will be prisoners in a biosecure environment, having swabs thrust up their noses a few times a week because the fear of the virus breaching these defences comes at such a great financial cost.

Yes, rugby matches will be played, and the results recorded for posterity. Test caps will be awarded. Databases and record books will dutifully record the scores and scorers. But this won’t be a tour worthy of the name.

“Tour” is defined as “a journey for pleasure in which several places are visited”. There might be some brief pleasure for the players in the immediate afterglow of winning on the scoreboard, but my fear is that this entire experience will be a facsimile of what Lions tours are supposed to be.

Seminal sporting events are supposed to be performed on a canvas with screaming masses as the backdrop. We’re not talking about a mundane Currie Cup or DStv Premiership game here.

These are once-in-a-lifetime clashes for players on both sides. Players have been asked to sacrifice a great deal just to be on the field over the past nine months or so, and they will again sacrifice as they play in a vacuum not of their making.

At some stage, though, we have to stop and ask: What is the point of this tour in particular, if 90% of what makes it special has been taken away?

In cricket, the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) started at the beginning of a massive Covid-19 third wave accelerated by a new variant, subsequently named Delta.

A few cricketers tested positive, but largely the 400 or so IPL players, staff and assorted hangers-on were unaffected in terms of their physical health. The games continued as Indian citizens died in hospital parking lots, unable to breathe.

Eventually, even a league as greedy as the IPL couldn’t ignore the optics as anger and resentment against the tournament grew. The IPL was suspended midway through as a show of solidarity with suffering Indians more than anything else.

I fear the Lions tour, coming as it does amid a violent third wave in South Africa, will suffer the same fate. Money, fame, history and honour may be what Lions tours are about, but if both squads are holed up in luxury hotels in Gauteng while citizens are literally dying in hospital corridors, the optics will not look good.

This situation is not of rugby’s making and the players, coaches and management from both sides have jumped through many logistical hoops to ensure the tour goes ahead. There is a financial imperative that it does, because the television rights money is essential to SA Rugby’s survival in the short term.

Sport, at the very least, usually provides a welcome distraction from day-to-day challenges. But these are not usual times. Will the Lions series be a welcome distraction, or a growing source of anger as citizens suffer more than ever under the weight of this disaster? DM168

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper which is available for free to Pick n Pay Smart Shoppers at these Pick n Pay stores.

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