Rugby Australia (RA) chief executive Andy Marinos said he
was surprised by news that the 2021 British and Irish Lions' tour to South
Africa will go ahead as planned and was cool on the idea of the Wallabies also
travelling there to play tests.
اضافة اعلان
The Lions and SA Rugby confirmed the July-August tour will
go ahead in South Africa where the COVID-19 situation has improved
significantly in recent weeks.
The decision effectively ruled out contingency plans for the
United Kingdom or Australia to host the quadrennial series.
"This announcement this morning that they're going to
host the Lions tour took me by surprise a little bit," former Wales center
Marinos told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.
"I don't know what the structure around that is looking
like."
Africa's most industrialized nation has yet to start
vaccinating the general public, and the Lions' winter tour will almost
certainly be staged without fans in stadiums.
RA had offered to hold the tour in Australia, where COVID-19
has been virtually eliminated and decent crowds have been packing sport events
for months.
Australia and its southern hemisphere partners South Africa,
New Zealand and Argentina have yet to decide when and where to hold the annual
four-nation Rugby Championship, which is slated for the second half of the year
after the Lions tour.
South Africa withdrew from last year's Rugby Championship
after governing body SANZAAR elected to stage the whole tournament in Australia
due to the pandemic.
The rebranded "Tri-Nations" tournament went off
without a hitch but it was much diminished in the absence of the world champion
Springboks.
Marinos said Australia hoped to host the whole Rugby
Championship with the Springboks included, and was less enthused by the idea of
the Wallabies travelling to South Africa.
"We need to have those sort of robust conversations
with South Africa, what does it mean?" said Zimbabwe-born Marinos.
"There's more of a concern with our guys having to go
over and potentially quarantine there than coming back and quarantining over
here, which I know the South Africans are going to have to do if they come
here," he said.
"I think we've resigned ourselves to the fact that
we're probably going to be in a bubble in some way, shape or form.
"So we're going to go through a process of determining
where that needs to be.
"My request to SANZAAR is let's get ahead of the game
and build a proper model."
Marinos confirmed that RA were "absolutely
planning" to host France for tests in July and said the French had a
"huge desire" to tour.
Governing body World Rugby are expected to confirm the dates
for the July test window in coming days.
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