It was always going to be a long-shot.
The high of the British & Irish Lions Test Series against New Zealand is beginning to dissipate. The All Blacks will turn their attention to The Rugby Championship while the Lions will focus on R&R over the next month after tearing it up in Auckland over the past couple of nights, and days.
One of the more interesting stories to emerge after the 15-15 draw in the final Test was New Zealand taking on a Barbarians team, in November, made up of mostly Lions stars.
The series finished as a 1-1 tie, and the trophy was shared, but some reporters on the ground were not content with leaving it at that.
New Zealand captain Kieran Read was asked if he would be keen to play a Lions-heavy Baa Baas side at Twickenham later this year. The game would definitely sell out English rugby’s HQ and would attract a lot of interest.
Read was all for the idea and The Telegraph reported, on Monday, that English Premiership sides were willing to release their Lions for the match. The Barbarians were said to be fully behind the concept too.
So far, so good.
However, England’s RFU has nixed the whole idea. According to Chris Jones on BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly, the RFU will not be releasing any of its international players as they will be in a training camp ahead of their November Series fixtures.
Ireland begin their November Series against South Africa on the 11th of that month and there should be a full round of Guinness PRO12 fixtures on the previous weekend. It is unlikely that the Irish provinces would be willing to let their big stars head over to London for what is essentially an exhibition game with no real bearing on the 2017 Lions Tour.
Level heads prevail.
Shame that.
