THE suggestion by Jurie Roux, the South African rugby chief executive, that the 2021 Lions tour could be postponed if coronavirus restrictions mean fans from the UK and Ireland cannot attend, requires close scrutiny.
Roux’s suggestion that the tour would not be “commercially viable” if supporters cannot travel flies in the face of the history of Lions tours.
As recently as the 1989 tour of Australia the number of travelling Lions fans was limited to a few thousand at most, with the massive boom in support coming between 2001 and 2017, with each tour attracting between 20,0...