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More lunacy looms for the Lions
Sunday 13th April 2008
A breakdown in communication between the various factions that claim to run European rugby is threatening to disrupt preparations for next year's British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa.
As reported last week, the Lions have announced that they would kick off the tour with a game against a Highveld XV in Rustenburg on May 30, 2009 - the very day set aside for the Guinness Premiership Final at Twickenham.
Premier Rugby, the body that governs the Guinness Premiership, has been urged to approach the European Rugby Cup (ERC) to see if they could switch the date of their showpiece event with the Heineken Cup Final, scheduled to take place a week earlier on May 23.
But it now transpires that even a timetable alteration will not solve the problem: the Lions were planning to convene for duty as early as May 19.
As things stand, the tourists face the farcical prospect of preparing for - and playing - their first two games of the 10-match trip with over half their group unavailable.
The Lions accept that they have no power other than persuasion to get the clubs to accommodate their wishes, and they now seem set for a testing confrontation before even setting foot on South African soil.
"The situation is not of our making and we feel distressed that having spent so much time on the season structure for precisely these reasons, the issue has arisen," Mark McCafferty, Premier Rugby's chief executive, told the Sunday Telegraph.
But Lions chief executive John Feehan believes Premier Rugby is not to blame for this all-too-familiar situation.
England's recent tour of South Africa was reduced to a virtual third-string affair due to similar problems, and Feehan has pointed an accusing finger at the Rugby Football Union (RFU).
"We're not the ones that can get this changed," he told the newspaper.
"Our original tour dates did not clash with the Premiership Final but the RFU asked us to move the tour back a week which we did with much difficulty.
"Much later they came back to us and said they wanted us to move it again. That's simply not possible.
"The Confederations Cup, a dress rehearsal for the football World Cup, is taking place in South Africa and will be using four of the stadiums we will be playing in. FIFA agreed to one lot of changes. We're not in a position to make any more demands."
Should the various parties fail to find a solution to the impasse, Lions fans might be forced to succumb to the lunacy: here's to a Guinness Premiership Final contested by two clubs with zero Lions invites between them - and an all-French finale to the Heineken Cup.
Was the wait worth it - Ya betta baby 
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