Why Lions should go to South America

RUGBY soothsayers have been known to be wrong – precisely none of them foretold that Argentina would beat all three SANZAAR teams in this year’s southern hemisphere championship – but there is little danger of losing the shirt off your back if you bet against Costa Rica qualifying for a World Cup any time soon.

Their ambitions for the 2027 tournament died a thousand deaths in the Colombian city of Medellin, where the hosts had things just about wrapped up inside an hour. A lot can happen in the final quarter of a Test match, but not quite enough for a team to turn around a 100-point deficit, even with a bench of Springbok quality.

Colombia ran out 136-0 winners, but they won’t make it to the main event either: Uruguay and Chile will be far too good for them as the South American qualifying competition unfolds, as, in all likelihood, will Brazil. But Los Tucanes are making progress, albeit in small steps rather than big strides, and once they fully establish themselves at the top end of South America’s lower tier, they will generate more investment from government and business.

Big picture-wise, this is good news. South America looks like being the rugby growth area Eastern Europe should have been – if we can’t blame the governing classes for Vladimir Putin’s expansionist impulse, we can certainly hold them to account for a lack of vision in Georgia and Romania – and while most of the international teams outside Argentina, Uruguay and Chile would struggle to be competitive against Ampthill or Chinnor, the same used to be said of Portugal.

Rugby has to catch the South American wave and ride it for all it is worth. Which is why the British and Irish Lions should fly west rather than east, sooner rather than later. There. Said it.