LET’s not beat about the bush, very little about the 2021 Lions in South Africa is going to be ideal or necessarily to our liking as rugby lovers, tourists, punters and TV consumers. Somethings are simply beyond sport’s control, a list topped I would suggest by a pernicious global pandemic.

But if the authorities can salvage anything from the wreckage – and reading between the lines there is still work to do – we should applaud them and the players. And if a tour of sorts can be organised around South Africa I would suggest it might go down as one of the most memorable in Lions history, ce...