Future for the Lions ???

[John23]

Will the concept become redundant in the modern professional era ?. Will Unions and GP club owners (who have been anal in the past about player release) in future be jumping up and down with joy that their players have been selected to tour considering the carnage of last Saturday ?. Will the players ask themselves "Do I really want to tour for six/seven weeks at the end of a long hard season and come back broken up." ? I have loved the idea of the Lions since way back when, but I think it's all becoming like the "Pacific Islanders" of the Northern Hemisphere

[hugonaut]

No, I actually think that the Lions have rebounded quite well from a disastrous tour of New Zealand [whipped off the park in every test, played sh¡te rugby throughout and an obviously unhappy squad] which would much more likely have spelt the end of the touring team than the current lost series.

The last two test matches have been exhilarating, tense, hugely physical and full of great tries from both teams. Some of the rugby has been exceptional from the Lions – Ferris' runaway try, Jamie Roberts' performance in the first test, Shaw and Kearney's performances in the second test, Tommy Bowe in the provincial matches, O'Driscoll throughout the tour – and they seem to have formed a tight bond. Without being successful in the test series, they've gone as far as they could to remedying the ills of the 2005 tour and left the Lions in a stronger position than they found them.

[thecoolfreak]

I think this tour has done a massive amount of good for the Lions. It has really rejuvinated the Lions. The players appear to be having a great time and they've shown that on the pitch with the way they have performed. I can't wait for this time four years

[Terraceman]

I don't know how people are talking about the end of the lions. I can't remember the last time I saw two matches of that quality one week after the other. It was simply incredible stuff and both matches could have gone either way.

Next week won't be as good though by the looks of things with the amount of injuries. It looks like Jenkins and Adam Jones will be out as well as a few others and it will be very difficult to bring the intensity of the last two weeks in to the 3rd match especially since the game doesn't mean anything.

We could have easily be reflecting on one of the greatest lions tour here but it is worrying that the Lions have failed to beat Southern hemisphere opposition in 7 tests now (8 if you include Argentina in 2005).

[Slipper1]

Apparently, the Lions will make €4 million profit from this tour. For the home nations,thats 4,000,000 reasons not to scrap it.