The British & Irish lions kicked off their tour in Australia today even though their first warm up match of the tour was last week at home in Dublin vs Argentina which they lost. This is the serious part of the tour building up towards the 3 test matches at the end of the tour itinerary.
The talk up to now has focused on the Australian team to release squad players to play in the warm up matches. This is a contractional obligation for players to play for their franchise teams so players are not protected. This is a major difference from days gone by as the top players were always protected.
The duty of the franchise teams is to make life tough for the tourists and if they can rough them up and injure them in the process then they have done their job. The end score is not what matters in these matches and it is up to the franchises to whittle down the Lions squad numbers. This will not be advertised as such, but this is the task of the franchise teams to make the life of the national team that much easier.
Players in the lions squad know what is the game plan and it is their duty to remain fit and healthy avoiding any injury wherever possible. this is why a touring team playing 9 or 10 matches is such a tough task as you start out with 38 and will expect to call up another 8-10 replacements because of injuries.
The Lions squad will be basically 2 teams with the A team being the test team and the B team being the dirt trackers playing the midweek slug fest matches. These games are important for the second string players to earn their way into the A team through performances so these are not dead matches and highly physical encounters. The test matches against the host nation will actually be less physical than the midweek matches.
I can recall touring teams playing the mid week matches having local referees so the tourists were really up against it. These days it is not so biased having professional referees who have to maintain a neutral stance at all times. Professionalism has definitely helped in the player safety when it comes to turning a blind eye to rogue tactics. I have never forgotten seeing a player being punched breaking his jaw in two places and there were no repercussions even when it was so blatantly obvious.
The Lions won by 54-7 against the Western Force today and it looks as though they may have lost only 1 player to a hamstring injury which is actually a good result for the tourists. There are still 4 matches to go before the first test against Australia and it will be interesting to see how many key players will be missing for the Lions when that game kicks off. The A team today will not be the same A team in 3 weeks time and that is the reality of a contact sport with so many games between now and then.