Is it reasonable to expect the B&Irish Lions to be competitive in the professional era.?

I think it is reasonable to expect B&I Lions to be *competitive* against national sides, but not to be rampagingly successful. There are other models - both Argentina and the various Islander nations have to put together makeshift teams in very short periods when they go to RWC (and on other tours), and they manage to be competitive. That's the level of play I would think of as "competitive": give the lads a good workout, demonstrate some good skills and commitment, keep the score respectable, and pull off the odd win (as both ARG and Fiji have managed to do against some national teams).

I would think that B&I Lions would certainly be competitive with Super-15 teams, as they are with NZ Maori and NPC clubs when they play mid-week - and as SH National teams find is the case when their mid-week squads play top-level clubs like Munster.

I would expect a hypothetical SANZAR team to be just about as effective going North as the B&I Lions are going South, and for the same reasons: teamwork and commitment to common technique pay off.

Whether the Lions' tours will long persist is hard to say. In the professional era, their home clubs hate the thought of giving players up (and putting their investments at risk) for what are basically "friendlies". One sees the issue in spades in European FA, and there already are problems (especially in the strong French clubs) with releasing players for even 6 Nations.

Mark L.

Have the British Lions ever really been competitive in the amateur or professional era anyway ?

Their have been four tours from the Lions in the pro-era for only one test series win against SA in 1997.

Prior to that only one series win against NZ on eight tours there, one win against SA on six tours, and four wins out of five in AUST ( to be honest, prior to 1989 tour series win, the Wallabies were " easy beats " of world rugby anyway )

Is a Lions tour every four years a "goal or incentive" for every club player from the four Home unions like it was in the old era ?

I don't know, but with club rugby and the WRC every four years, it does seem to me, the Lions concept is becoming less relevant in the pro-era.

Time will tell, how much longer it will go on for ( personally it will be sad being a kid in the 70s, I still remember the Lions tours to NZ then, they were entertaining to watch ! )

I hope this sort of answers your question, surely any Lions tour in the pro-era is given first priority over the UK club comps for those players selected.

Its more noticable nowadays in the professional era how much conditioning and preparation bites into a squads ability to do well. The only thing is the B&I Lions werent set up for the challanges of the professional era and its intensity, it was set up as a touring squad for the sake of playing rugby and entertaining crowds in the amateur era. This means that the whole concept might struggle with the pressures of the professional era, especially where club manager's are becoming angered with the arrangements since it means that their players become very fatigued over the summer - the period where the players usually get their long break from rugby; And rugby is the one sport where a player needs a break after a year of smashing themselves into the opposition relentlessly.

Back to the point though - The whole point of the Lions is to play rugby and entertain crowds - much like the barbarians to an extent; So who cares if they might struggle to reach their full potential given the time frame, we all enjoy watching the games - even if the Lions aren't playing your club/country.