Keith Wood's idea to avoid 'extraordinarily difficult' time for Lions after tour

Former Ireland captain Keith Wood believes players who take part in a British and Irish Lions tour should sit out their national team’s next summer tour to ensure they do not burn out.

Wood, who won 58 caps for Ireland – 36 as captain – played in five Lions Tests in 1997 and 2001 and has personal experience of the toll of having to go on tour with his country the summer after playing for the most famous touring team in the world.

Wood, whose father Gordon played on the 1959 Lions tour, was a crucial member of the 1997 Test series triumph in South Africa, said: “The Lions could be the last bastion for some of the original Corinthian values of the sport and I don’t think that is overplaying it.

“The Lions should never be marginalised into a smaller window and I am a big proponent of player welfare and players are playing for far too long in the season and far too much rugby is going on and the level of hits are so much bigger.

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“I am in awe of some of the fitness levels of the players and I am happy enough for the Lions to always be in a four-year window but I wish the following year they would have no summer tour for the players that go on it.

“They need a summer off in a four-year cycle and we want these players to play on and on because they are that good. I had two tours a year after my Lions tours and they were extraordinarily difficult.

“What the Lions takes out of you needs some time to put back in and what it takes out of you is this huge mental and physical toll that you have to go through to understand how everyone else plays in about four weeks. It’s incredibly intense and worth every single bit of it.

“A Lions tour that succeeds tends to put everything that makes you good as a player and as a team out on the table for everyone else to see. All your strengths and weaknesses and that is one of the hardest things you can do.

“On a Lions tour, it doesn’t guarantee success but by God does it go a long way to loving those guys you are with. I lose it when I see the guys from 97 – these are guys we put our bodies on the block together and it was that honesty that goes into it.

“My Dad played for the Lions in 1959 and I grew up in Lions house and I love it for what the players are going to experience (in Australia) and it is one of the pinnacles you can have in your career and all you want is that they embrace it with that level of honesty and they can see every bit of it and that is pretty magic.”

Wood, who joined Giles Morgan on The Captains Picnic podcast, also believes the Lions is vital for the financial future of the sport, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere. He explained: “From a financial aspect, it’s the only thing that keeps the world of rugby ticking over properly.

“I know that Australia effectively mortgaged their future until the next Lions tour and that is what keeps them afloat. It is one of the most important aspects and needs to be treated with increased respect.”