The Lions tour of 2021 to South Africa has been penciled in to still go ahead in July and August 2021. There will be 5 warm up games and 3 Tests with a very tight schedule between each game of 3 and 4 days.
It will be a very tough couple of weeks given how long the new season will be after the suspension of this year’s season where each season will restart over the next few weeks and then you’ll have a short break before the new season will begin.
It is great to see the organisers putting a plan in place as 2021 will be an extremely busy 12 months for sport as a large number of sporting events will take place across 2021, namely the European Championships, Olympics and The Ryder Cup that will now take place after being cancelled in 2020 due to the ongoing Covid 19 emergency.
The chief executive of South African rugby Jurie Roux hopes that the Tour will take place as scheduled in 2021 but one suspects that health experts along with the South African Government will have an impact on that but let’s hope that the original date that all concerned are hoping to use will work out and it will be all systems go in 12 months time.
There will be big opportunities for many players to put down early markers at the end of this campaign and all the way through the new season that will kick off at varying times over the next few months.
Many players have said that they have enjoyed the time off but now want to get back to training and then hopefully playing games in the near future. Warren Gatland has had a tough run in the new Super Rugby Aotearoa thus far and will want to finish that competition with a few wins before he will set his sights on South Africa in 2021.
Over the previous 3 tours, it’s a loss in 2009, a Test series win in 2013 and a draw in 2017 in New Zealand. Gatland will want to end his time with The Lions with a 2nd Test Series win after he masterminded the Test Series win in 2013.
Supporters will want to know exact details for certain as many will want to plan their trip accordingly. Sky will broadcast a 7th straight Tour after securing the broadcast rights.
Now that the current season will come to an end in the next few weeks and then the new campaign will kick into gear after a few short weeks of a break and then it will be full on until the Tour of 2021…