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Lions Agreed To Cut Short South Africa 2021 Tour

The tour of British & Irish Lions to South Africa in the year 2021 will be cut short to eight matches. This is the move that has been welcomed by Premiership clubs of England, but future trips could be retained to 10 fixtures with the four home unions keeping the options for the team open.

Talks with Australia, South Africa and New Zealand with regards to the decision to cover the three tours in the upcoming 12 years are meeting a conclusion. From the Premiership, the Lions have come under pressure that secures the Rugby Football Union backing, to cut the tour duration and reduce the load on players those who are in form and leading the team.

The Lions most recently went on tour to New Zealand and played 10 matches this summer, but the first match was staged three days post their arrival. The tight schedule makes the players uncomfortable, and at the time, the team did not have even a single training session as a whole team before flying out due to the Premiership and the then finals of Pro12. With fans buying tickets to the Autumn Internationals through this link, and hoping to see players at their best, something had to give to allow the players a chance to recover in time for the usual Premiership season.

However, in 2021 the team will leave on a Tuesday, and the team will not play for a week at least. The decision if the team on Wednesday will play the first match in South Africa has not been taken yet. After the first Test, the team has no midweek matches have one game in between the first two international matches.

The reason why the Lions have agreed to cut short the number of fixtures is that South Africa would strive to field seven teams of required strength outside the Tests and will show a good performance.

Lions Tour Boosts NZ Economy

The economy of New Zealand grew to 0.8 percent in the April-June quarter, and the credit for this goes to the boost in tourism from the tour of British and Irish Lions rugby, official data of tour reveal this information showed Thursday.

New Zealand Statistics said the quarterly figure, which was, according to the market expectations released on Saturday, days ahead of national elections, took annual growth to 2.7 percent.

The report says, exports raised to 5.2 percent, and it the best quarterly performance in the span of 20 years, almost, amidst high demand for dairy and forestry products of New Zealand. The export volumes of Dairy surged to 19 percent as this sector sustained to bounce after a long downturn. The Statistics of NZ say the accommodation and retail trade rose 2.8 percent, because of the tourist lift that place got for the Lions tour. This is normally a stagnant and quiet period of the year.

It said “An increase in the number of international visitors in this quarter, categorically from the United Kingdom, led to incline of international guest nights, which ultimately benefitted the industry”.

Paul Dales, the capital Economics analyst said the figures of growth were “decent” and can also favor election to Prime Minister Bill English. Bill English has campaigned for economic credibility.

The figures have overall been good, the only concern, which is also a major one is that, the figures show a 1.1 percent fall in the construction activity, and it is concerning because, this is the second consecutive quarterly drop of the sector.

He said, “We have a doubt that construction will be a continuous drag on GDP growth in the next year, but it is clear that this is not going to add as much to grow as in recent years”.

Irish Rugby Seeking to Raise Game in US

Ireland is seeking to help rugby; crack the United States ugby scene and to do this, it is planning to host 2023 World Cup.

Chiefs of Irish rugby will present their bid for the World Cup in-front of voting unions in London on 25th of September. The other contenders of the World Cup are South Africa and France.

On October 31 the Rugby World Cup will issue its recommendations to 39 voting bodies, fifteen days ahead of the declaration of final hosting decision. The leagues of European club is eyeing already for the potential for US franchises, on the other hand, America has tossed a bid for the 2023 World Cup almost.

The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) insists on staging the tournament of 2023 and would push America ever closer to becoming a serious candidate as a host of future global competition.

“On the Rugby World Cup, we have put a forceful,” said Philip Browne, the IRFU chief executive. If the community rugby is genuinely seeking to expand the sport, want to inspire people, we believe, and then we have made things easy for them. “What we had seen as a tripartite partnership should come in place, between Ireland 2023, if they win the bid, US Rugby and World Rugby. It is about what could be done to strengthen the rugby footprint in North America.”

The five main political parties of Northern Ireland have signed a letter of support reiterating the pledge of cross-government to pay the £120 million as the tournament staging fee, facilitating concerns after the collapse of the Northern Ireland Executive.

The 900-page bid of Ireland document charts an economic benefit tilted to run 1.5billion Euros with organizers committed to sell all tickets (2.2million) at a rate of 30 percent less than England 2015.

England Rugby Players Could Go On Strike

The top rugby players of England of the season could down tools over the length and fixture congestion, this Damian Hopley the union boss has said.

After Joe Marler and Billy Vunipola who voiced their doubts over proposals to shove the Six Nations into six weeks, chief executive of Rugby Player’s Association Hopley is the latest one intervenes into the debate. Continue reading England Rugby Players Could Go On Strike

Pulver Faces Grilling Of The Senate

Union chief of Australian Rugby, Bill Pulver faced aggressive questioning during a Senate hearing where it was advocated that the Melbourne Rebels had got over double the Western Force funding before the axing of the latter from the Super Rugby competition (SBC).

The hearing title was the “Future of rugby union in Australia”; however, the hearing was dominated primarily, by an issue, which related to the latest decision to dump the Force.

In the last three years, Force got funding of the least amount five teams of Australia and the most the Rebels, Linda Reynolds, the WA Liberal Senator, told the hearing, citing the statements of ARU.

The fund included the amount of $33 million to the Rebels, on the other hand, Force received the fund of just $15 million, she said. In addition, the Rebels also had a loan written-off of $13 million by the ARU, at the time when this franchise was bought by businessman Andrew Cox for $1 in the year 2015 before, giving its responsibility to the Victorian Rugby Union (VRU) this year.

Senator Reynolds told “Look at this, the Force has received the least amount of grants of these Super Rugby in comparison to any other team.”

In Pulver said that he does not have the trust on the figures of Senator Reynolds, which she said was shocking as he was the chief executive of the governing body. After some time, the questioning turned heated when Pulver clearly refused to disclose about the deals or support that were done with the Cox and Rebels declaring it a confidential agreement.

Pulver, who spoke to disgruntled Force fans briefly who turned for the hearing, he said the committee of the Senate was mocking him about that, on the other hand, Rachel Siewert, the Greens Senator said she was stunned hearing these words of him.