So where next for the British & Irish Lions? They are revered wherever they land, not only for their own brilliant history and because they can stop the rest of the rugby world in its tracks while they operate.
There is also the matter that wherever they have been over the past few decades, they have saved the host union from financial disaster — not least the tours to South Africa in 2009 and 2021.
The same is true for Rugby Australia these past few months, and the same will undoubtedly be true for the beleaguered New Zealand Rugby — the Lions are due there in four years’ time.
But why can the Lions not make their own decisions? Why do they have to plod wearily along the same routes? Surely it’s up to the host unions to balance their own books. The Lions have been a charitable institution for way too long.
The Lions are a huge global brand with a substantial following, but their tour pattern seems inflexible in the modern landscape
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND
They should change. They should not go to New Zealand in 2029 or, at least, they should debate the issue first. I was disappointed to learn that the Lions have already been nailing down contracts for that tour.
It is time to move on. In quieter moments in Australia these past few weeks we have been drooling over the prospect of the Lions touring in France — the modern-day capital of the rugby world. It is a sensational venue with gorgeous stadiums, there is no jet lag, it would be almost infinitely cheaper for the Sea of Red to make the trip.
A tour to France would also balance so many books in so many areas that the traditional hand-to-mouth existence of many rugby bodies would be a thing of the past.
Of course, it would take some doing. The season in France as it stands is one of unrestrained brutality for the players. The close season has all but disappeared. Recently France took a second or third-string team to New Zealand, and they were perfectly justified in doing so because it gave their exhausted players from the first ranks a God-given rest.
France, whose national team are led by the mercurial Antoine Dupont, would offer a comprehensive tour
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So how would you move things around to accommodate a Lions tour of ten matches? My thought would be that the sagging European Cup competitions could be shelved in any Lions year, giving six weeks back to play with.
And would it really be impossible for all international games, bar the Six Nations, to be canned in a Lions year? It is not impossible to imagine the Lions touring in France — with a three-Test series plus a fixture list outside the Test matches of mighty import; the Lions versus Toulouse or Bordeaux Bègles, for example, would pack out the grounds.
Why should the whole tour be negotiated in one country? It really is high time that the Lions used their brand and their commercial power in other directions.
Repeating the same three hosts risks staleness at a time when the game needs to expand
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND
If they played a tour in France, then they really should kick off either in Italy or in one of the emerging nations, such as Spain or Germany, to boost the image and importance of the game clean out of sight.
Eight games in France, two games elsewhere. As I say, it would take some doing. It would demand that the Lions jump out of the deep trench they have dug for themselves, leading only to the same old fixtures in the same old hosting nations.
If I could be in charge of world rugby — and be honest, what could be better for the modern game — I would put France down as a venue for four years’ time; then it could be judged that New Zealand deserve a spot and deserve a visit four years after that.
A three-Test tour to Argentina could also involve matches in Uruguay, the US or even Chile
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND
And then, the Lions should strike out again. In eight years’ time the United States will have staged their own World Cup and even that gigantic and frustrating country might find that its rugby has been boosted out of sight.
So why not have the Lions touring the Americas? They could play a three-match tour against the deserving Pumas, who put the Lions to the sword in Dublin before this trip. Argentina is a magnificent rugby country and a magnificent nation to visit. They deserve way more inbound tours and they deserve the Lions.
There could be a match against Argentina A. Then internationals against Uruguay and the US, possibly with Chile or Canada also receiving a visit for international rugby. Eight years from now, if they know that the Lions are coming, then the nations will be on full alert, and the whole experience could boost them far quicker than they could be boosted in any other method.
There is nothing about the Lions concept in itself that demands change. But the rugby world is changing, and the Lions should react to that. They are rugby’s most famous team, and how better to promote the cause of the grand but damaged old sport than to parade the Lions on grounds around the world?