Former Ireland captain Keith Wood believes gamers who participate in a British and Irish Lions tour ought to sit out their nationwide crew’s subsequent summer time tour to make sure they don’t burn out.
Wooden, who gained 58 caps for Eire – 36 as captain – performed in 5 Lions Checks in 1997 and 2001 and has private expertise of the toll of getting to go on tour together with his nation the summer time after taking part in for probably the most well-known touring crew on the planet.
Wooden, whose father Gordon performed on the 1959 Lions tour, was an important member of the 1997 Check sequence triumph in South Africa, stated: “The Lions could possibly be the final bastion for a few of the unique Corinthian values of the game and I don’t suppose that’s overplaying it.
“The Lions ought to by no means be marginalised right into a smaller window and I’m an enormous proponent of participant welfare and gamers are taking part in for much too lengthy within the season and much an excessive amount of rugby is occurring and the extent of hits are a lot greater.
“I am in awe of some of the fitness levels of the players and I am happy enough for the Lions to always be in a four-year window but I wish the following year they would have no summer tour for the players that go on it.
“They need a summer off in a four-year cycle and we want these players to play on and on because they are that good. I had two tours a year after my Lions tours and they were extraordinarily difficult.
“What the Lions takes out of you needs some time to put back in and what it takes out of you is this huge mental and physical toll that you have to go through to understand how everyone else plays in about four weeks. It’s incredibly intense and worth every single bit of it.
“A Lions tour that succeeds tends to put everything that makes you good as a player and as a team out on the table for everyone else to see. All your strengths and weaknesses and that is one of the hardest things you can do.
“On a Lions tour, it doesn’t guarantee success but by God does it go a long way to loving those guys you are with. I lose it when I see the guys from 97 – these are guys we put our bodies on the block together and it was that honesty that goes into it.
“My Dad played for the Lions in 1959 and I grew up in Lions house and I love it for what the players are going to experience (in Australia) and it is one of the pinnacles you can have in your career and all you want is that they embrace it with that level of honesty and they can see every bit of it and that is pretty magic.”
Wood, who joined Giles Morgan on The Captains Picnic podcast, additionally believes the Lions is important for the monetary way forward for the game, notably within the Southern Hemisphere. He defined: “From a monetary facet, it’s the one factor that retains the world of rugby ticking over correctly.
“I do know that Australia successfully mortgaged their future till the subsequent Lions tour and that’s what retains them afloat. It is among the most necessary facets and must be handled with elevated respect.”
