Rugby Australia warned: Release your Wallabies, or else
Justin Chadwick |
The British and Irish Lions have put Rugby Australia on notice, declaring the governing body will be breaking an agreement if they don’t release Wallabies players to oppose them in tour games.
After touching down in Perth on Sunday night, the Lions attended a Welcome to Country ceremony at Kings Park on Monday ahead of the highly-anticipated three-match Test series against Australia.
The first Test will take place at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on July 19, but before that comes a concerted build-up for the tourists.
More than 40,000 fans are expected to turn out to watch the Lions take on the Force at Optus Stadium on Saturday night.
They will then play the Queensland Reds (July 2), the NSW Waratahs (July 5) and the ACT Brumbies (July 9) before facing a combined Australia and New Zealand outfit in Adelaide on July 12.
The Force will unleash Wallabies squad members Nick Champion de Crespigny, Dylan Pietsch, Tom Robertson, Darcy Swain and Nic White against the Lions on Saturday.
But complicating matters is the fact the Wallabies take on Fiji on July 6, meaning other Force squad members like Carlo Tizzano, Harry Potter, Jeremy Williams and Ben Donaldson are in camp with the Wallabies and will miss out on the first tour match against the Lions.
Australian coach Joe Schmidt was initially keen to protect most of his squad from the tour games, but has since softened his stance somewhat.
The Lions want Rugby Australia to make as many Wallabies players as possible available for the tour matches.
“The agreement is very clear. It says that Test players have to be released to play in the fixtures leading into that Test series, and so that’s our expectation,” Lions chief executive Ben Calveley said on Monday.
“I think it’s really important that these games are competitive.
“And it’s not just from a performance standpoint. The players do want to test themselves, and they do want to build towards the Test series.
“It’s also right for the fans and for the broadcasters and the partners and so forth, who are all expecting competitive fixtures, and for the rugby-loving public here in Australia,
“We’ll play the game at the weekend, and we’ll carry on having discussions with Rugby Australia, with (RA chief executive) Phil Waugh and the rest of the executive team.”
The Lions are licking their wounds following a shock 28-24 loss to Argentina in Dublin last week.
Though stung by the defeat, it opened the conversation of whether Argentina or even France deserved to be included on the current rotation of Lions tours.
Currently, the Lions only tour every four years, alternating between Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
“We remain open to having discussions about what the future for the Lions may hold, but those conversations are for another time,” Calveley said.
“You can certainly understand why people will get excited about that sort of a concept (a series in France).
“What’s not to like about some of those wonderful clubs you could play against and some of those wonderful venues in the summer time as well?
“I’ve seen the feedback over the last couple of weeks from various people … and it was enormously positive. But we’re focused now on this tour.
“We haven’t made any decisions to go in that direction yet.”
AAP
