{"id":307002,"date":"2025-07-31T16:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T16:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307002\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T16:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T16:21:11","slug":"france-issue-update-on-their-chances-of-playing-the-2029-bi-lions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307002\/","title":{"rendered":"France issue update on their chances of playing the 2029 B&I Lions"},"content":{"rendered":"

A leading rugby official has claimed the idea of France taking on the British and Irish Lions \u201cremains something conceivable\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the standard of opposition across the 2025 tour to Australia largely underwhelming until last Saturday\u2019s second Test against the Wallabies<\/a>, there have been suggestions that the Lions should consider playing in other countries rather than sticking to the current schedule.<\/p>\n

As it stands, the Lions visit Australia<\/a>, New Zealand and South Africa<\/a> on a 12-year cycle and the schedule traditionally is for the tourists to play a series of local teams before a three-match Test series.<\/p>\n

The only variation with this in recent times has been staging a one-off match before the Lions arrive in the country they are touring. For instance, they hosted Argentina in Dublin in 2025 and Cardiff in 2005, and welcomed Japan to Edinburgh in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to find a new approach\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

They also stopped off in Hong Kong to take on the Barbarians in 2013 on their way to Australia.<\/p>\n

However, the idea of taking on European opposition is something that hasn\u2019t happened since a 1989 match in Paris against France, some months after the Lions had returned victorious from their Test series against the Wallabies.<\/p>\n

That October match was staged as part of the celebrations for the Bicentennial of the French Revolution, and Abdelatif Benazzi, the current French Rugby Federation\u2019s vice-president, has claimed that informal talks are progressing about the Lions potentially playing France before their 2029 tour to New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Andy Farrell\u2019s final Lions 2025 selection described as \u2018cracking looking team\u2019, a \u2018shame\u2019 and an \u2018insult\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s progressing, but nothing formal,\u201d Benazzi told AFP. \u201cEvery four years, we see the wave of people and enthusiasm it generates in all countries. A collaboration with our neighbours remains something conceivable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to find a new approach to be able to energise a bit of world rugby\u2019s global image. We want to find a model that satisfies everyone. We have to reform because there\u2019s the Nations Cup that starts next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of that will be in coordination with all bodies, the players\u2019 union in France, the French national league, and the global players\u2019 union.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lions are currently in Sydney awaiting the final match of their 2025 tour.<\/p>\n

Beaten by Argentina in Dublin in June, they have won all eight of their games so far on Australian soil and have secured an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series with the Wallabies before Saturday\u2019s third and final Test.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Eddie Jones hails \u2018best in the world\u2019 Lion and \u2018enormous\u2019 Owen Farrell impact against Wallabies<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A leading rugby official has claimed the idea of France taking on the British and Irish Lions \u201cremains…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[112694,5313,2000,299,36,225,90462,12],"class_list":{"0":"post-307002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-abdelatif-benazzi","9":"tag-british-and-irish-lions","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-home-page","14":"tag-internationals","15":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114948766855778460","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}