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Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Times
View from Down Under: The Lions are very welcome guests, but they could do their hosts more harm than good
Since the arrival of the British and Irish Lions in Australia three weeks ago, the sword of Damocles has been hovering over the heads of the Wallabies and never more so than in the Test week. The Lions are a unique guest to host. On the positive side of the ledger, their visit comes once every 12 years and they come laden with financial benefits, attention for rugby and some of the finest players in the world. However, this guest is also keenly aware of their own value and the desire from others to host them at any time. French Rugby Federation vice-president Abdel Benazzi is reportedly travelling to Melbourne next week to engage with Lions officials about the suitability of hosting the world's most famous touring team. It's hard to blame the former flanker, given that his federation is facing a minimum loss of €19.2 million, potentially rising to €28.9 million after hosting the 2023 Rugby World Cup. The romanticism of the Lions and its rich tradition has faded, replaced by cold, clear financial returns for both host and guest. According to the Australian Financial Review, the last Lions tour made €19.5 million profit for Rugby Australia and this tour could make more than €55 million. It is not yet clear what the Lions' profit will be, but comfortably, it will be far higher than previous tours of New Zealand and South Africa. READ MORE Slow Lions build-up finally culminates in Test week Listen | 37:54 If Australia has appeased the Lions with its financial clout, the Wallabies also need to fulfil the far more challenging role of being a competitive opponent in the Test series. A brutal whitewash will leave Rugby Australia far weaker at the negotiating table. At this stage, the Lions are not contractually locked into visiting the country again in 12 years' time. Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt always knew he was facing the biggest challenge of his coaching career when he left his fishing rod and golf clubs in his garage at home in New Zealand to help save Australian rugby. Injuries to two of the most crucial parts of his Test jigsaw have made the job even more difficult. In Australia, traditionally, the Wallabies outhalf has been a role with a limited shelf life. Schmidt changed this by investing in Noah Lolesio, who blossomed under the former Ireland coach. After the narrow win against Fiji, Lolesio sadly underwent a spinal fusion procedure in a Brisbane hospital. Schmidt has now handed the playmaking keys to Tom Lynagh, son of the great Michael. Tom Lynagh has only played three Tests for the Wallabies and is now trusted as the man to pilot his country to victory in the city where his father remains a legend. Rob Valetini is Australia's best ball carrier but will be absent for the Lions tests through injury. Photograph: Andrew Fosker/Inpho The Wallabies have also lost their best ball-carrier, Rob Valetini, to injury. The giant flanker has been voted Australia's best player for the past two years. The Brumbies backrower complements the slick jackaling ability of Queensland's open side Fraser McReight perfectly. Valetini shovels opponents off the ball at the breakdown, allowing McReight to swiftly win penalties on the floor. [ Gordon D'Arcy: Time for Lions and Wallabies to leave the 'meh' behind and make some real magic Opens in new window ] Valetini is suffering from a calf strain and is joined on the treatment table by the mutual heft of La Rochelle lock Will Skelton and the Waratahs' best player this season, number eight Langi Gleeson. Schmidt has been forced to give a debut to the uniquely named Nick Champion de Crespigny. De Crespigny is an elite economics graduate and the grandson of Rafe Champion de Crespigny, a noted expert in ancient Chinese history. His aristocratic name and bearing belie an intensely physical player who McReight affectionately referred to as 'a psycho' when asked for a description for the gathered press. Australia's injury problems have led coach Joe Schmidt to call on Nick Champion de Crespigny. Photograph:The Wallabies traditionally have a strong record at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, but they will start this game as huge underdogs. The Lions have named a strong side, and off the field, there have been changes. All written press are now banned from the 10 minutes they used to get to watch the Lions training, although the Wallabies have not changed their policy. [ Farrell and Schmidt announce their opening hands as atmosphere builds in Brisbane Opens in new window ] At the Lions team announcement last Thursday in Adelaide ahead of the ill-fated game against the Australian and New Zealand selection, a child tried to ask a question, before being shut down by team management. Business before pleasure. To their credit, the Lions have started to open up slightly, hosting signing sessions in Brisbane for their thousands of fans and also despatching the amiable trio of Henry Pollock, Duhan van der Merwe and Josh van der Flier for the tough gig of being hosted by the Great Barrier Reef foundation on the famous coral. The preamble has almost been completed and the first Test is set. Australia are desperate to be perfect hosts, but they need to prove it where it matters most; not on spreadsheets, but on the pitch. In a country where rugby is frequently said to be hanging by a thread, a win against the odds in the first Test would be the true kiss of life.
BBC News
16 hours ago
- Business
- BBC News
Rugby Australia hopeful of full house for first Test
The Sydney Morning Herald reports, external that there are still tickets available for all three Tests between the British and Irish Lions and Australia after some were handed back by UK tour newspaper adds that there were fewer than 1,000 remaining for the opener at the 52,500-capacity Suncorp Stadium for Saturday's series opener on Wednesday."We're almost there," said Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh. "So naturally, just the way ticketing works, you get some hand backs from different tour groups that are pre-booked, and so you just naturally have some that become available late, which is what we have for this weekend."But we're almost there. Hopefully, we get a good run home and a full stadium."The Melbourne Cricket Ground is hosting the second Test and is expected to have more than 90,000 people in attendance. The turnout of MCG members - who have access to events at the venue - will decided whether how close the crowd gets to the capacity of 100,000.
BBC News
a day ago
- Business
- BBC News
Why Lions series could save rugby union in Australia
First Test: Australia v British and Irish LionsDate: Saturday 19 July Kick-off: 11:00 BST Venue: Suncorp Stadium, BrisbaneCoverage: Live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app with post-match analysis on iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live and Rugby Union Weekly podcast Last Friday, the day before the Lions' final pre-Test warm-up, Peter V'landys headed out of was unlikely he would have been tuning in anyway.V'landys, the chair of the Australian Rugby League Commission, has been a consistent and caustic critic of the 15-man to him, rugby union in Australia is an "attention-seeking", external liability that leaves its players "terribly bored"., externalV'landys flight was bound for the US, where he is reportedly pitching to steaming superpowers such as Netflix, Disney and product is the NRL. And, for those in Australian rugby union, the numbers involved are NRL's current TV deal is worth A$2bn (£973m) over five years. V'landys hopes the next deal, which kicks in after 2027, will be worth A$3bn (£1.5bn).The NRL is expanding on other fronts. The addition of the Perth Bears and a Papua New Guinea franchise will take the league up to 19 teams by the end of the decade. Last year the league staged two matches in Las Vegas, a jaunt that is now an annual Australia, by contrast, is on the signed its own TV rights deal in April. Despite being an increase on their previous, Covid-dented agreement, it clocked in at A$240m (£117m) - about an eighth of the NRL's present Melbourne Rebels went into administration last year, leaving Australia with four Super Rugby teams. The Brumbies - the best of the survivors - struggle to attract five-figure crowds. Rugby Australia is losing out on the balance sheet as well, leaking A$36.8m, external (£17.9m) in its latest Aussie Rules also well ahead of union in terms of finances and coverage, some fear the sport is in terminal decline in Australia."Rugby sits a fair way down the ladder in our sporting ecosystem at the moment," said James Horwill, who captained Australia during the 2013 Lions tour and now sits on the board of Queensland Rugby Union."We've got three full-time sporting codes that are all competing for the same athletes, the same fans, the same sponsorship dollars and ultimately the same TV slots. It's a very congested marketplace for a country that has 25 million people."Union wasn't always so 2003 the World Cup was held in Australia.A team of Wallaby greats, defending the title they had won four years earlier, went all the way to the Larkham pulled strings at fly-half, George Smith menaced the breakdown and George Gregan crowed over the beaten All World Cup pulled more people through the turnstiles and more profit into the tills than any tournament in was front and centre. However, its subsequent attempts to tap into new territories, launching the Western Force in Perth and the Rebels in Melbourne, did not strike the NRL and the Australian Football League (AFL) moved nimbly to accelerate their game and improve the spectacle, union lagged players were picked Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii arrived to much fanfare last year, the Wallabies were at a net loss to rugby league as Carter Gordon and Mark Nawaqanitawase headed in the opposite direction at the same time. The raiders come from overseas as well. Top 14 clubs especially have come calling for teenage talent, taking them out of school and halfway round the world to play in all the time, the Wallabies have stalled. The two-time champions have reached the World Cup final once since nadir came in 2023 when, 20 years on from their home World Cup, they were dumped out of the tournament at the pool stages for the first Waugh, who played in the 2003 final, is the man tasked with staging the Rugby Australia chief executive in 2023, he is clear that the Lions are key to boosting the beleaguered finances of his predicts that Rugby Australia could end this year with a A$50m (£24m) surplus, with a mammoth 100,000-plus crowd for the second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground helping it wipe out its heavy borrowing."We're still very much on track to have the option of being debt-free by the end of 2025, and then with the uplift in broadcast and continued financial discipline through the next cycle... we'll be in a far stronger position to, sensibly and in a well-considered way, invest into the different projects or community elements of the game," he told the Australian Financial Review, external this next cycle is key for union in Australia. The Lions is just the well as the Lions tour, Australia will host the men's and women's World Cups in 2027 and 2029 respectively and the Olympic Sevens tournament in 2032. It is seen as a golden decade that, taken together, underlines the strengths that union has over its rivals - a global depth and intrigue that Aussie Rules or rugby league can't has already seen it. When he made his Test debut at Twickenham last November, the scale of the occasion, in front of 82,000 people, caught him to the media this week, he counted the number of microphones and Dictaphones in front of him as an indicator of the interest a Lions tour generates."My old man has always said to me 'it's a big world out there' and rugby brings that," Suaalii said."This is one of the great parts of our game and we should be celebrating it," said Horwill."It is so unique, really to any other sport in the world - four nations coming together with so much tradition, history and so much support, and come out on tour."In Australia, where you're competing every weekend for talent, for sponsors, for fans, for kids playing the game, this means a lot."Kids will watch this and want be part of it one day. You can't overestimate the impact it has."Justin Harrison agrees. "It's a real shot in the arm," the former Wallabies second row said."People will be able to see rugby played on the screens when they're walking past pubs. They're going to see a ground swell of people moving towards an event; they're going to hear singing and jocularity and friendly rivalry."Sport is wonderful, but rugby in particular brings the world right into the palm of your hand and we have to make the most of that."Horwill and Harrison know, however, that the surest route back to into the limelight is also the simplest: via the pitch."We haven't been able to perform at the level we've wanted to over the last little bit. So ultimately we want some good performances to engage the fickle or casual rugby fan," said Moore, a former team-mate of both, believes the ultimate injection of momentum may is at hand."Without wanting to put too much pressure on the current players it is there for them to take," he told the BBC's Rugby Union Weekly."If we can keep our best players on the field, it is a very winnable series for us."The Wallabies are playing for themselves, their country and also a whole sport.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
For $379, this seat is still available as Wallabies-Lions creeps towards sell-out
Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh has defended the ticket pricing and accessibility for the Lions-Wallabies Test series, after none of the Lions' five tour fixtures sold out and with the 'full house' shingle yet to be hung on Suncorp Stadium for the first Test. After years of anticipation, the countdown is on for the opening game of the three-Test series between the Wallabies and Lions in Brisbane on Saturday, but seats were still available for the game on Wednesday, and for the second Test in Melbourne and the third in Sydney as well. The Lions' five fixtures played in the first 15 days of their tour saw strong crowds, many of which were venue records for rugby, but all venues contained sections of empty seats. Rugby Australia, who set the ticket pricing in a joint venture with the Lions, has drawn criticism for setting prices too high and making the games inaccessible for some fans. Ticket prices for the first Test in Brisbane range from $149 to $649 per seat, with the MCG ($99 to $649) and Accor Stadium ($149-$649) Tests having similar pricing structures. Tour game prices were lower. For context, single tickets for the annual State of Origin series this year cost between $49 and $399, and to get a ticket for the Sydney show of Oasis' reunion tour will set you back between $129 and $849. Given that it is a once-in-12-years event, the demand for Lions tickets has still been strong, and all corporate packages were swiftly sold out, suggesting the market mostly accepted the prices. But fans have also expressed frustration on social media platforms, and late ticket returns from UK tour operators have proven hard to shift. There were less than 1000 tickets left for the 52,500-capacity Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday. Waugh is confident the ground will end up full.
The Age
2 days ago
- Business
- The Age
For $379, this seat is still available as Wallabies-Lions creeps towards sell-out
Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh has defended the ticket pricing and accessibility for the Lions-Wallabies Test series, after none of the Lions' five tour fixtures sold out and with the 'full house' shingle yet to be hung on Suncorp Stadium for the first Test. After years of anticipation, the countdown is on for the opening game of the three-Test series between the Wallabies and Lions in Brisbane on Saturday, but seats were still available for the game on Wednesday, and for the second Test in Melbourne and the third in Sydney as well. The Lions' five fixtures played in the first 15 days of their tour saw strong crowds, many of which were venue records for rugby, but all venues contained sections of empty seats. Rugby Australia, who set the ticket pricing in a joint venture with the Lions, has drawn criticism for setting prices too high and making the games inaccessible for some fans. Ticket prices for the first Test in Brisbane range from $149 to $649 per seat, with the MCG ($99 to $649) and Accor Stadium ($149-$649) Tests having similar pricing structures. Tour game prices were lower. For context, single tickets for the annual State of Origin series this year cost between $49 and $399, and to get a ticket for the Sydney show of Oasis' reunion tour will set you back between $129 and $849. Given that it is a once-in-12-years event, the demand for Lions tickets has still been strong, and all corporate packages were swiftly sold out, suggesting the market mostly accepted the prices. But fans have also expressed frustration on social media platforms, and late ticket returns from UK tour operators have proven hard to shift. There were less than 1000 tickets left for the 52,500-capacity Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday. Waugh is confident the ground will end up full.
