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Living With The Lions Sports Travel

There’s one way you can answer the question of who should captain the Lions and that’s to have captains all over the pitch. You might be the captain in name, but to have voices all over the pitch is what you want as a coach and this attitude is being borne out by comments made by Brian O’Driscoll.

O’Driscoll has said he was ‘disappointed’ not to be named captain of the 2009 Lions tour to South Africa and rightly so - every player should be thinking the same thing. Every player should be playing with the attitude of leadership on the pitch.

The pleasing aspect of O’Driscoll’s interview was his “full support” for Paul O’Connell and his sentiments and excitement as this going down as one of the best Lions tours should be acknowledged as a nod towards O’Connell’s selection.

It should be a fine rugby tour with beautiful weather, excellent pitches and a team that could potentially be the best Lions team for decades. The first game on 30th May in Rustenburg will go a long way to combating the players’ nerves and tightening the camaraderie within the team.

The first Test on the 20th of June will set the tone for the rest of the Lions tour, as it will show the South Africans what they’re up against. Win in Durban and the Lions’ roar will be heard throughout South Africa.

There’s been a spate of injuries to key players picked early for the British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa and it’s causing concern amongst the selectors. Just over the past few days Tom Shanklin has been added to the list of wounded Lions with an untimely shoulder dislocation.

Shanklin joins the queue to the doctor’s surgery behind a hobbling Tomas O’leary and his broken ankle; and who knows whether Alan Quinlan will be in the squad either having caught the selectors eye in a rather different way than he would have wanted.

However, The Springboks have also been in the wars with The Super 14 tournament taking its toll on Francois Steyn (knee) and Conrad Jantjes breaking his leg. Both will miss the Test series and both are blows to the South Africans.

These injuries throw up the question of how much rugby is being played with weekend and mid-week games keeping the players ready for action on a permanent basis but with the Six Nations tournaments on top of that work load, are we asking too much of the players?

There is a great pool of talent on offer to the Lions selectors and of course one man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity and the way our selected players are dropping there’ll be plenty more opportunities to grab hold of.

Martin Johnson, the England manager, has offered a degree of hope for the English players who have been overlooked by the selection committee who picked the squad for the British and Irish Lions. Johnson says that his English players who hoped to make the tour of South Africa, the latest of the British Lions rugby tours, could still get a chance as the players who are currently in the squad could be beset by injuries.

Johnson added that by playing first class rugby for England, his players will make sure they’re match fit and in the thoughts of the Lions selectors. England have a series of games against the Pumas (Argentina) this summer, which should help his players stay sharp.

Two of the England players who were omitted from the squad were Tom Croft and Delon Armitage, but Johnson believes they may still make the rugby tour if injuries go their way.

I texted a few of the guys last week and reminded them that injuries happen on Lions tours.

If there are injuries, the best place they can be is playing tough rugby.

England’s series against Argentina won’t be hindered too much by the Lions tour as England only has eight players involved, one of their lowest turnouts for years. Johnson declared that despite the missing players, England aims to win the two games against one of the strongest emerging rugby nations, stating:

This is not a development tour. We are there to win the Test matches. I don’t want people to think it doesn’t matter because it is a development tour. We will put out our best team available to win that Test match.

Munster player Tomas O’Leary is set to miss the British and Irish Lions rugby tour of South Africa after he broke his ankle last week playing for his club side against Welsh outfit Scarlets.

However, Ian McGeechan, the head coach for the Lions, stated he won’t be rushed into naming a player to replace O’Leary ahead of the Lions first game at the end of May, where the Lions face Highveld XV.

McGeechan stated:

I’m not looking to name a replacement for 10 to 14 days. There’s still some rugby to watch.

There are several players in contention to replace the injured Irishman, including Scottish duo Chris Cusiter and Mike Blair, Danny Care of England, Dwayne Peel of Wales and Ireland’s Peter Stringer.

Should Chris Cusiter be called up to the British Lions squad, his involvement would impact on his club games for French side Perpignan. He could potentially have club games at the same time as the first few Lions fixtures.

Scotland captain Mike Blair was a surprise omission from the Lions squad when it was announced. He remains quietly confident that he’ll get his chance:

I’m confident in my abilities as a player and it’s up to the selectors. If they want me, then great news. If not, you keep on sticking in there and see what happens.

In the last three or four weeks I have been happy with my form and I will just wait and see. It was frustrating for Scottish rugby to only have two guys in the squad. The selectors have got a type of player they are looking for. All we can do is keeping pushing our case.

The British Lions squad to face the Springboks in this year’s Lions rugby tour has been announced and there have been some notable omissions from Wales and Lions coach Warren Gatland’s selection. The biggest shocks are that the captains of England, Scotland and Gatland’s own Wales, Ryan Jones, have all been left out.

Gatland has remained steadfast over his decision to leave Jones out of the squad, claiming his national skipper isn’t in good form and doesn’t deserve a place in the Lions team.

The squad has been picked on form and he is not playing well enough at the moment.

I hope he will take his disappointment on the chin and I am sure he will continue to work hard.

England forward Tom Croft has also been left out of the squad to play against South Africa, and Gatland claims he was closer to being selected than Ryan Jones.

Tom was very, very close. He is a very good athlete, a good line-out forward. He is very, very unlucky I think.

There was serious debate about combinations, experience, players fighting in the trenches if they had to.

We have got a big pack with players we know who are physical but who can also carry the ball.

Of the 37 players selected, almost half of them were from the Welsh side that won the Grand Slam last year, but came up short to Ireland this year.

The last Wales coach to be involved with the British and Irish Lions was Graham Henry, whose involvement is widely believed to have contributed to his downfall as Wales coach as the politics between the home nations’ camps drew him in.

Rugby fans in South Africa are more than delighted to see the South Africa 2009 Lions Series. The 70,000 tickets for the event have already gone on sale and are expected to sell out.

The tickets, which have been on sale since 23rd February 2009, were a part of the 2nd phase of the much awaited series. The tickets are available for seven out of the ten matches to be held.

It was a great chance for season ticket and suite ticket holders, as they got a preference in the 1st phase, as a reward for their loyalty. The tickets would be limited as they have already been committed to other stakeholders.

Nearly 30,000 tickets would be up for grabs for the Coastal XV match on 16 June in Port Elizabeth, after confirmation of the seating configuration at the Nelson Bay Mandela Stadium.

There are 2,500 test match tickets available for the 3rd test in Johannesburg at the Coca Cola Park, but the demand is so high, especially in smaller stadiums that only hospitality packages are available.

More than 50,000 Irish and British visitors are expected for the rugby tour, for which the Lions get only 11,000 tickets for every Test, leading to a further increase in demand.

Andy Powell is all set for his first Six Nations encounter against England this weekend. He made an exceptional debut at Murrayfield and has turned himself into a strong candidate for the Lions tour. Five years back, Powell had spent six months in the family recycling business, turning his back on rugby.

Andy Powell’s assets for the Lions spot for the South African trip may be enhanced in Wales where he will play at No8 on Sunday, following the active performance that helped to defeat Scotland. Powell’s tackle on Chris Paterson at the end of the first half prevented a try which could have seen Wales’s interval lead as 16-10.

When Powell joined as a development player for Newport, he was just 18. Former Wales coach, Graham Henry, gave Powell a chance in the national squad and his play attracted several bright reviews.

He said that when he joined Newport, he was a young man who was easily led and would easily go along with the craic. There he was shown proper direction and also allowed to play his natural game.

Rugby is one of the most popular and loved games in the UK and fans of the Lions will be ready to support them no matter where they go. All those British and Irish Lions fans that enjoy a good game will be doubly rewarded when they support the team in their next rugby tour which will be in South Africa in June 2009. About 35,000 Lions supporters followed their team to New Zealand, it is expected that Lions supporters will be seen in South Africa as well.

This rugby tour will be a perfect getaway for all those Lions fans in the middle of the year. Along with cheering their team on, fans will be able to experience the wonder and beauty of South Africa. The beautiful landscapes and exciting safaris will be a real treat for those who will be here supporting their team.

The Lion’s tour of South Africa will also be a wonderful opportunity to showcase corporate hospitality or would even work well as a school tour. The upcoming rugby tour is sure to be an exciting one and will be top of the “to-watch” list for all rugby fans in the UK.

The newly appointed Lions assistant coach Warren Gatland has warned Grand Slam winning players that they will have to earn their place in next year’s team for the rugby tour of South Africa.

Gatland, who is originally from New Zealand, was named the Lions forward coach on Wednesday in Dublin. Of course there were plenty of accusations against him for taking up the job, as he is also the head coach for Wales, but Gatland was quick to dismiss them. Although Gatland is quite a young coach, he feels that this experience from the South African rugby tour will help him to grow and gain knowledge as a coach.

Gatland stated that he although he coaches the Welsh team, it does not mean that he is going to go easy on them. In fact, he has said that the Welsh players will have to work extra hard. He also stated that he was surprised at the number of Welsh players selected and that there were not too many Irish players on the team. The final team which will consist of 35 players will be announced this coming April following the Heineken Cup quarter finals.

Never mind the credit crunch that the UK is facing, die-hard rugby fans will still support their team. An expected 50,000 fans will follow the British and Irish Lions to South Africa for the three-test rugby tour. This figure is approximately 20,000 more than the last tour to New Zealand. The Lions have indeed become something of an enterprise and the whopping crowd expected to follow them is proof of that.

The Lions do indeed have a high brand value. All the supporters feel like they are part of a movement and wish to support it as best they can and what better way to show that support than to tag along on the tour.

This is indeed a very big event, as a Lions tour happens only every four years. The last one that South Africa hosted was in 1997. Thus, it is no surprise that there are so many supporters and followers.

The tickets which are part of official packages, cost quite a pretty penny, ranging from flight and match tickets, costing around £2,200, to a full 38-day experience at over £7,000. While some people have that kind of money to dish out, the rest will have to make do with their own travel and ticket arrangements.