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The British and Irish rugby team will play the first game of their six-week tour of South Africa on Saturday, despite the escalation of the coronavirus outbreak in the host country which forced the entire Springboks squad to self-isolate. se.
The four-year tour of the Lions, made up of the best players from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, is the most anticipated match on this year’s rugby calendar and among the most lucrative events in the sport’s programming.
Although concern about playing top-level sport in a pandemic called into question the tour, organizers decided to continue with the three international games and the five warm-up matches.
The tour provides revenue not only to the four rugby unions that share ownership of the Lions, but also to the host country. This cash injection is particularly needed after 18 months of financial struggles and pandemic-induced disruptions.
The Lions ’last tour, in New Zealand in 2017, was worth A $ 245 million for that country’s gross domestic product, according to New Zealand Rugby, which made a profit of A $ 33.4 million that year.
“They will do everything they can to make this happen,” said Steve Martin, global executive director of M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment. “The Lions’ tour, because only once every four years, do they have to capitalize on it.”
However, as a sign of the anxiety surrounding the tour, the games will be played in empty stadiums. This means that there are no paying supporters and none of the thousands of British and Irish fans who normally travel to see a number of Lions and who provide a major boost to the host nation’s economy. In 2017 more than 342,000 seats were covered and almost 26,000 visitors traveled to New Zealand to see it.
Iain Henderson of the British and Irish Lions jumped into the line during a warm-up match against Japan in Murrayfield last month © Lee Smith / Action Images via Reuters
Mark Alexander, president of the South African Rugby Union, the governing body, told local media this week that the Lions tour would go ahead, but that “it would be ridiculous to welcome spectators when we are in crisis.”
Still, all amateur rugby and club games in South Africa are suspended amid a devastating third wave centered on the country’s economic center, Gauteng.
New cases recorded daily in South Africa have reached 13,000 in recent days and hospitals are filling up, where the wave of epidemiologists believes will be driven by the Delta variant.
The day the lions arrived this week, South Africa entered its second most severe level of blockade that included night curfews and a ban on the sale of alcohol.
Brian Moore, emitter and former England striker who played for the Lions in 1989 and 1993, said authorities had been forced to make a tough decision.
“It was some version of that or nothing,” he told the Financial Times. “Especially given South Africa’s statements about its financial situation, it almost had to go ahead.”
The Lions believe that testing, social distancing, the use of masks, sanitation and the absence of fans would help protect their “biosafety bubble”. “The South African government and our own medical advisory group are happy that the tour will continue,” the Lions said.
Rescheduling matches would have been an expensive and challenging task due to the saturated schedule of the sport. Organizers were also reluctant to move to the UK, where fans have been able to watch the Euro 2020 football tournament and Wimbledon tennis championships this week.
Moore said this would have been the best solution: “The safety of everyone involved should be a concern [and] this is unfortunately not a given fact ”.
But he added that “if they get an attractive and competitive series, it will demonstrate the strength of the Lions brand.”
The preparations of the local team, whose last competitive match was the final victory of the 2019 World Cup against England, have also been interrupted. The Springboks were forced to cancel training and put their team in their own isolation last weekend after three players tested positive for the virus, although practice has since resumed practice.
Even with the Lions tour ahead, SARU chief executive Jurie Roux has warned that the rugby of the sport-loving country was walking a “financial loose rope”.
It reduced costs after the pandemic strike, which limited net losses to 7.9 million rand in 2020, although revenue from transmission and sponsorship fell to 669 million rand compared to 1.3 billion. of planned rands.
Revenue is expected to recover to 1 billion rand this year, although it remains below pre-pandemic levels.
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