Lions warn Joe Schmidt to release players for franchise teams
The British & Irish Lions have warned the Australia coach Joe Schmidt that he will breach the tour agreement if he does not release more Wallabies for non-Test matches.
Schmidt, the Australia coach, is determined to protect his Test side for the series in July and August. However, the Lions had it written into their contract with Rugby Australia that Wallabies should play for their Super Rugby franchises in the build-up to the Tests.
Schmidt has released five of his squad to play for Western Force against the Lions on Saturday at the Optus Stadium in Perth — Nick Champion de Crespigny, Dylan Pietsch, Tom Robertson, Darcy Swain and Nic White — but is not planning to send any more of his squad back to their respective club sides.
The Lions chief executive, Ben Calveley, has outlined that failing to release the players would breach the tour contract. However, he did not confirm how the Lions would respond if Schmidt continued to ignore the agreement, and it appears that legal action is very unlikely.
'The agreement is very clear; it says that Test players have to be released to play in fixtures leading into that series. That is our expectation,' Calveley said. 'We'll see a competitive fixture at the weekend, and that's what we're looking for. We want to make sure our guys are battle hardened when it comes to that Test series against the Wallabies.
'We'll play the game at the weekend, and will carry on having discussions with [Rugby Australia chief executive] Phil Waugh and their executive team and will take that step by step. We are encouraged that we'll see a strong side competing at the Optus [Stadium]. We're clear that in the agreement it says that Test players do have to be released. We'll move into the game at the weekend, and what comes after that we'll deal with in time.'
Four years ago in South Africa, the Springboks could not play for their franchise teams because the tour took place during the Covid pandemic, so no movement was allowed between squads. In New Zealand in 2017, All Blacks such as Sonny Bill Williams, Rieko Ioane, Sam Whitelock and Codie Taylor played in the tour games against the Lions.
Realistically Schmidt could release his Wallabies for the Queensland Reds match next Wednesday in Brisbane, and the ACT Brumbies midweek game on July 9. As Australia play Fiji on July 6, the day after the Lions face the NSW Waratahs, there is no chance that the likes of Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and Angus Bell would play for their club side in that Sydney match.
Calveley said that the competitiveness of the tour matches is essential for making the Lions tour work.
'It's really important that these games are competitive,' he added. 'It's not just for a performance stand-point — the players do want to test themselves and build towards the Test series — but it's also right for the fans, partners and broadcasters who are all expecting competitive fixtures, and for the rugby-loving public. That would be their expectation as well.
'Last time around, although it was baked into the agreement, that had to all be slightly changed because of Covid. You couldn't have players coming out of one camp, i.e the Springboks camp, and then into the Sharks, or whoever it might have been, and then back into the Springbok camp. You saw the impact of that with the competitive nature of some of those games leading into the Test series, they could have been slightly tighter.'
The Lions chairman, Ieuan Evans, a three-times tourist as a player in 1989, 1993 and 1997, added: 'I think what's clear is that we are an elite sporting touring team and we need to be challenged and tested in our preparations towards the Tests.'
The Lions are fully aware of their commercial and financial might these days, so are keeping an open mind for the location of their future tours. If Australia are not able to offer them a sustained challenge, they are happy to look elsewhere. The Lions are interested in playing against France, as well as Fiji, the United States and Japan, around future tours.
'We played against Argentina on Friday, we played against Japan four years ago. There are different teams around the world that we might be interested in playing against in future. Traditionally that's been consigned to a pre-tour element — Dublin, Murrayfield — so we'll probably focus on that,' Calveley explained.
'We're also interested when we go away on tour to see if we can bring other countries like Japan and Fiji to feature in those games as we build up to the Test element. We're open, we're flexible but right now there are no plans to change the rotation of the tour structure. The kinds of countries we've talked about would include North America, everybody in rugby is interested in breaking through in that market.
'Japan, we played against for a reason. The same with Argentina. There have been discussions with France. So there are lots of different options. I think what's encouraging for us is that whatever country you speak to, they are interested in having a relationship with the Lions, whether that's in their country or on UK or Irish soil.
'We know we bring significant travelling numbers to every single country that we visit so that economic impact is important and I think that's probably one of the reasons why so many countries out there in the world are interested in us.'
Evans added: 'Nothing exists in splendid isolation, the sporting aspect has to play a part as well as the economic impact.'
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