The British & Irish Lions are close to receiving a significant boost for the 2025 tour of Australia with Premiership Rugby ready to bring its final forward to accommodate more preparation time for the series against the Wallabies.
A historic agreement between the Lions and PRL requires final approval by various stakeholders, but if it is agreed it would end years of acrimony and improve the tourists’ chances of a first series win in 12 years.
It is understood discussions over the agreement have taken place for more than a year with the Lions chief executive, Ben Calveley, and his PRL counterpart, Simon Massie-Taylor, adopting a collaborative approach in contrast to the conflict surrounding recent tours. One well-placed source said the expected agreement is a welcome positive story for rugby, beneficial for all parties, and an example of the promises for greater cooperation among the game’s stakeholders.
A lack of preparation time has long been a source of frustration for the Lions. In 2021 the head coach Warren Gatland warned that PRL’s refusal to budge would count against English players when it came to selection before the tour of South Africa. PRL, for its part, was angry the Lions staged a warm-up fixture against Japan at Murrayfield on the same day as the 2021 Premiership final.
While the United Rugby Championship was happy to bring its final forward, making players available to Gatland earlier, PRL has traditionally held firm. The 2021 final was just a week before the Lions’ first match in South Africa, as was the case in 2017 when players were so jetlagged they were falling asleep on the bus on the way to the tour opener.
The new agreement would give whoever coaches the Lions against Eddie Jones’s Australia more latitude, however, and will enable them to pick from a full squad for a warm-up match in the British Isles. It would also avoid players arriving for the pre-tour camp in dribs and drabs as was the case four years ago.
Pending approval, the finer details of the agreement, including commercial ventures between the clubs and the Lions, are expected to be announced next month to coincide with the two-years-to-go milestone, along with the final schedule that is likely to include a match against a combined ANZAC side featuring players from Australia and New Zealand.
