It was back in March that the idea was first mooted of a Lions Test against France. It wouldn’t be the first. As part of their Bicentennial celebrations to mark the French Revolution, Les Bleus played and lost to the Lions in Paris in 1989.
The Daily Telegraph, which broke the story earlier this year, said that the Lions would like to play France as a preface to the women’s tour in 2027 and the men’s in 2029, which are both to New Zealand. In other words it would be a loosener before flying south.
Since then, an idea has grown of something altogether more ambitious: a full-blooded tour to France. Executives reportedly held discussions in Australia last week about the possibility.
Abdel Benazzi, the former France forward and now vice-president of the French federation (FFR), will be pushing the case for France, as he did in Dublin last month when he had an “informal” chat with the Lions’ suits before the warm-up match against Argentina. “Our position as a neighbour is that we can do something together in the future,” he said. “How we can build something bigger for rugby, for everyone around the world with this meeting and secondly, how we can build some business between the two institutions, the Lions and France.”
Not everyone is taken with the idea of the Lions touring France. The former England and Lions hooker Brian Moore wrote last week that such talk is “misguided” because it would undermine the Six Nations, “the world’s oldest and premier rugby union tournament, which has been consistently popular and commercially successful.”
It’s hard to see how a Lions tour to France every 16 years (if the destination were to be incorporated into the existing cycle of the three southern hemisphere nations) would undermine the Six Nations. Benazzi clearly doesn’t think so, and he is president of the Six Nations Council.
Any Lions series in France would certainly be competitive; it would also involve some spine-tingling midweek matches: Toulouse, Bordeaux, Clermont, Toulon, a clash against a Paris XV composed of the finest from Racing 92 and Stade Français. Even if the French internationals were off preparing for the Test series, these clubs would still be chock-a-block with talent from the southern hemisphere, Italy, Ireland and Britain.
The idea of a Lions tour is gaining momentum in France. All the matches in Australia have been broadcast on L’ÉquipeTV, the broadcasting arm of the famous sports daily, and the dedicated rugby newspaper Midi Olympique ran a recent article headlined ‘And what if the Lions came on tour to France?’
Matches against the Lions are of course of major sporting interest, but they also represent considerable revenue potential at a time when the FFR is being bled dry.
It’s not just Benazzi who likes the idea of the Lions coming to France. So does his boss, Florian Grill, the president of the FFR. “Matches against the Lions are of course of major sporting interest, but they also represent considerable revenue potential at a time when the FFR is being bled dry,” he told L’Équipe in March.
A few weeks earlier Grill had laid bare the economic woes of the FFR, explaining that they were €75 million in the red and in dire need of government help. A little help from the Lions wouldn’t go amiss, either.
It’s not the FFR who need persuading, however, it’s the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR), the governing body of the Top 14. It’s only a few years since the two bodies were at loggerheads and no one in French rugby wants a repeat of that acrimony. “We won’t do anything without consulting with the National Rugby League,” emphasised Grill. “It has to be part of the agreement…because nothing can be done without the LNR’s approval.”
When contacted by the media in March, the LNR were cagey in responding, saying that “issues relating to the calendar and the availability of players for the coming years” would be discussed in due course with the FFR.
A Lions tour shouldn’t be confined to the affluent supporter. They are for everyone who loves rugby.
The attitude of the LNR and the clubs they represent is likely to be ‘what’s in it for us?’. To which they would expect to hear ‘Money’. There are some splendid stadiums in France, in Bordeaux, Lyon, Paris, Toulouse, Marseille, Nantes and Lille, all capable of holding between 35,000 and 80,000 people. That’s a large financial pie to slice up.
But arguably the strongest reason for a Lions tour is to ‘democratise’ the brand. And a brand it has become. A lucrative one for everyone involved, particularly tour operators.
The packages they offer to supporters wanting to follow the Lions to South Africa, New Zealand and Australia usually run into five figure sums. How is a student or a mum and dad on a low-income wage with two children able to afford forking out over £10,000 per person, particularly during this sustained cost-of-living crisis?
A Lions tour shouldn’t be confined to the affluent supporter. They are for everyone who loves rugby. That would be the great thing about a tour to France; it could be done on a shoestring budget. Imagine: four students taking the ferry to France in their battered old banger with a tent and a camping stove in the boot. They drive down through France, from venue to venue, having booked a spot in a conveniently-located campsite. It’s the height of the northern hemisphere summer, and not the depths of the southern hemisphere winter. Their biggest outlay would be match tickets, but the whole tour should cost no more than a few hundred quid. That’s a lot less than the £23,495 that one tour operator was charging for the Australia tour.
It’s inconceivable that the Lions ditch Australia. Mates don’t do that to each other. Australian rugby is in poor health but it will recover with the help of its friends.
But why not also add France to the schedule? “In rugby we need something new,” said Benazzi. “Thinking about what the youngsters want, what a new public want.”
Exactly. A new Lions tour that would attract a new and younger public. What could be better, other than beating the French?
Are there enough players that could be picked from Continental Europe to travel and tour like the Lions do?. Players from France, Italy, Georgia, Spain, Portugal and Romania in a combined team. It would be dominated by France, at least initially, but many of those countries are growing in importance. They could potentially tour to the areas that the Lions don’t, North and South America, Asia and Pacific.
Won’t some of the best of the talent from the Southern Hemisphere - South Africa, Argentina particularly and maybe more from Australia if they change their selection a little, also be off preparing or playing in their July window tests at that time of year? Also Georgia and Italy were both touring/playing tests while the Lions were in Australia??
Also the southern hemisphere clubs, with the exception of the South African teams in the URC, have a relatively short season. French teams do not. Are they going to want to add in additional games for the players they need to manage in the season ahead. The French wanted to rest quite a few of their players from the NZ tour, but these games would be played at the same time of year?
I concur completely shortsighted article and idea.
This has to be one of the most stupid ideas I've ever heard in rugby. Who on earth thought it up must be making some dosh out of it! The Lions’ tours themselves are pretty daft themselves these days anyway, unlike, say, the 1974 tour of SA that I thoroughly enjoyed because the Lions who I supported then, thrashed the Boks, who I now support, and took about three months! These recent ones are a joke they are so short and really weird when you think about it.
Cue the B&I&SHXPATs LIONS 🤣🤣🤣
Nah
Is that what the Lions have become, a financial crutch for any given governing body unable to manage their domestic game in a fiscally competent manner!!.
Lions tours to France are the worst idea since Napolean decided to invade Russia.
Napoléon had some successors since then…
That would be great. Get a slice at their C team every 12 years.
Nations league - 2026
RWC prep - 2027
Club rugby World Cup - 2028
Lions V NZ or FRANCE - 2029?
I personally don’t think there is enough test rugby at the moment and never saw the use in using July for essential rest or to blood players on development tours.
No need to worry about a C team, Benazzi has said they’re looking at a national squad of 50 and I wouldn’t bet against them! In fact there might just be an idea in that for others, after all, Ireland have been milking advantage out of something not dissimilar for years…
One concern I have with a BIL tour of France is the club games. French clubs are home to a large portion of Fijian, Samoan, Tongan, Argentinean and Italian internationals. There are already issues with these clubs not releasing their internationals for tests during the specific test windows. This happens especially with the Pacific Islander internationals, who are often told to skip certain tests by their clubs, because they need to rest for the Top 14 season or specific Top 14 games. While this has been an issue in the past, it is going to affect the Pacific Islands worse when these test windows are used for the Nations Cup tier 1 and 2 games. What will happen if during the BIL tour of France in June/July the French clubs tell their internationals to skip their test matches for the country so they can play BIL in a midweek game.
Incorporating France into the schedule would be another real boot in the balls for NZ & Aus financially. SA would be fine with their feet more under the EPCR table and 7N to follow but the other two would lose out, reducing to three tours from four cycles currently. That said, it would be a cracking series if they can sort the calendar issues.
7N… still 😂
The reduction next year from 7 weeks to 6 weeks makes it MORE likely to accommodate an extra 5 games? Please be kind enough to walk us all through that one, Ed.
How would it be a cracking series? Their players meet every year at test level and multiple times in Euro club comps.
If we start talking about incorporating BIL tours to more countries like France or Argentina - and putting boots in the balls of Aus and NZ (well said Ed) then we may as well go full Monty and consider a combined SANZAAARG team to tour the north every 4 years.
And unceremoniously decimate the North everywhere.
I think there’s a fine line between too much rugby and chasing the money. I think we’ve passed it.
Are the Lions relevant anymore?
We can imagine Blair Kinghorn playing saturday with Lions and Wednesday with Toulouse….
France did not sent the first team for NZ this year and anybody knows what side(s) will go to NZ, Australia and Japan, next year for nations cup . So if you add clubs in mid week , I don't think the problem will be solve soon…
But maybe in 16 years….
Genuine question are the stadiums too small in France? Don’t all the top 14 teams have 35K or less seats? I would imagine more B&IL travellers would come how do they account for this?
Top14 teams don't allways play in there cities largest stadiums . For example :
Bordeaux, play in Chaban Delmas stadium, less than 35000, but sometimes in Matmut Stadium, 42000.
Toulouse, Ernest Wallon 20000, Stadium Municipal, 35000.
It is the same thing for Lyon. There also large Stadiums in Nice ,Nantes, and obviously Marseille and Paris…
A Lions tour to France would be incredible for so many reasons.
1. It would be so much more accessible to Lions fans. Imagine how many fans could fly/train over to the fan zone in Paris, even without having tickets? The atmosphere would be unbelievable.
2. The midweek games would be competitive! The French league is so deep. Imagine the likes of Jack Willis playing against the Lions trying to prove a few people wrong?! It would be outstanding! The only question mark that I can think of is it would be in the off-season. But as it would be one extra game for each team, I’m sure they could make something work for once every 16 years.
3. The rivalry between France and the Lions could be legendary. Imagine the bragging rights!?
Jack Willis could play against the Lions on a Weds and get called up to play for the Lions at the weekend.