The silver lining of the 2017 Lions schedule

The British and Irish Lions already had a mountain to climb on their tour of New Zealand next summer and that mountain was seemingly made all the higher by the news that the Blues, Crusaders and Highlanders – the first three Kiwi Super Rugby teams the Lions face – will be able to pick their respective All Blacks.

The Lions can take solace from the fact that arguably the two best sides in New Zealand, the Chiefs and Hurricanes, will be without their All Blacks due to the proximity in time of those matches to the three tests with the All Blacks themselves.

This means that the Blues will able to call upon Jerome Kaino and Charlie Faumuina, the Crusaders will able to deploy the likes of Sam Whitelock and Kieran Read and the Highlanders will have the services of Aaron Smith and Ben Smith at their disposal. There is no doubt this increases the challenge for the Lions.

There is no shortage of pessimistic predictions in regards to the Lions’ prospects in New Zealand next summer, either, with Irish rugby writer Conor O’Leary even taking to Twitter to predict the Lions will lose seven games on the tour.

The schedule is certainly gruelling and not helped by the fact that any players involved in the Aviva Premiership or Guinness Pro12 finals will likely miss the first game of the tour against a Provincial XV, as both finals take place just seven days before that match. The next match takes place four days later, against the Blues, and it is a more reasonable expectation to see the finalists of the two leagues in that fixture.

Given that the Lions will have to face the Blues (7^th June), Crusaders (10^th June) and Highlanders (13^th June) in the space of a week, there is certainly the possibility of one or more of those franchises taking down a hastily assembled Lions squad.

The Chiefs and Hurricanes, bereft of their All Blacks, will still pose a potent challenge for the Lions’ second XV but with more time together, they should be more winnable games given that the Lions squad will have spent more time together, the first and second XVs will be established and both teams should have started developing chemistry together.

One argument is that whilst the inclusion of the All Blacks in the Blues, Crusaders and Highlanders squads makes those tour matches all the more difficult for the Lions, it does give the tourists an extra look at some of New Zealand’s finest before the tests begin. There are very few areas of the game where the likes of Read or the two Smiths can be attacked, but if these earlier matchups highlight any sort of chink in their armour, Warren Gatland will be thankful for the extra challenge they pose.

Furthermore, the harder the tour matches, the better idea Gatland will have of what the players at his disposal are capable of. The Crusaders, Highlanders, Chiefs and Hurricanes are all matches for a number of test teams, as highlighted by the Chiefs’ dismantling of a second string Welsh XV this summer, and even the Blues, the New Zealand team which finished lowest on the Super Rugby log this year, are still a formidable opponent.

All five of the Kiwi Super Rugby sides will have their hearts set on taking the memorable scalp of rugby’s greatest and most prestigious institution, and the chances are that one or two may well do that. The Lions will not want to lose any match, but the three tests with the All Blacks are the real mission and if the iron of the Super Rugby franchises sharpens the iron of the Lions and better sets them up for the tests, the inclusion of test players in the franchise sides should be music to Gatland’s ears.

The odds are firmly stacked against the tourists but there is a lot of rugby to be played between now and the tour and far stranger things have happened before in test rugby.