2017 British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand: Fixtures announced

Please send me the literature for the lions tour of new Zealand 2017

These are iconic images, TT. The after dinner speaking circuit in Britain and Ireland is dominated by stories about Lion's tours, usually about these 'provincial' games. My favourite was the story told by the, sadly, late Scottish lock Gordon Brown. On the famous and very rough Lions tour to SA in 1974 he was playing against one of the provinces and they had a huge opposition lock. The first lineout Brown goes up for the ball and hits the ground seeing stars as he's been belted. He staggers to the next lineout and smashes the culprit in the side of the head. What he didn't realise is that the guy had a glass eye which he'd knocked out with the punch. Brown said the guy bends down picks up his glass eye and reinserts it, turns round and stares at Brown. Apparently, a bit of mud and grass had wedged itself and was sticking out from behind his eye. Brown said it was the most intimidating sight he'd ever seen on a rugby pitch.

Yeah, I know TM. It generated some very unfavourable comment in Britain and Ireland. I think the result of the 3rd test masked it a bit.

Kirky also score a stunner in the 1971 series

Birdy the Sunday papers following the Canterbury Lions match 1971 showed a photo of the Lions front row sporting facial bruising from the day before.

Yeah, it's massive but the council is essentially locked in to committing $253m to the project regardless of the outcome - unless the Government is happy for them to back out of the deal they signed in 2013. The insurance wrangle only decides how of that $253m comes from the insurer and how much from Chch ratepayers.

Christchurch is about 30 per cent down on pre-quake accommodation but I'd expect a few more hotels would have popped up before mid 2017.

Still, you'd imagine $90m is a pretty big sum to give up on. Even if they only end up getting half that, an extra $45m would make a fairly big difference to what they can build.

OB Know what you mean. Was at the first Lions test 2005 in Christchuch, spent time after the game in the supporters bar under the old stand packed with AB and Lions supporters. You soon find out its the love of the game, and the occasion that brought these people half way around the world.

The insurance debate is a secondary issue (although important if you're a ratepayer). The council has already committed $253 million to the new stadium, regardless of how much it gets paid out in insurance.

I think Rob that there are other considerations. We all are aware of the extreme devastation of the Garden City and the Stadium wasn't spared. But there must be other considerations, such as accommodation capacity to be considered when re-building a major entertainment arena.. I do not have details of loss of hotel/motel bed but it must of also be substantial. I also might suggest that that hospitality sector also might not have the same urgency due to the lack of venue sizes. To rebuild a 35,000 capacity stadium to host major events, other complementary infrastructure must be available.

Yeah agree on Suncorp - missus and I were there last year for the ABs "get-out-of-jail" test and I reckon the hairline receded some more that night.....and, nothing did beat seeing and hearing the action, the banter and the cheering from both sets of supporters. The darkness were lucky - in the last moments of the game, everyone in yellow was cheering in anticipation of a deserved win while all of us in black looked like stunned mullets....then all of a sudden, it was like someone switched cameras and we in black were all cheering while everyone in yellow became the stunned mullets....extraordinary scenes of instantaneous change amongst everyone present. Wouldn't swap those opportunities even if the result was reversed.....for a brief couple of hours, you meet total strangers with just as much passion as yourself except they're wearing opposition colours and you banter, you kid each other, you laugh, you cheer, you groan and when the final whistle is blown, you look at each other, nod, shake hands then turn and head off in different directions, probably never to see each other again. That's what happens at the game and as I said, I'm a tragic - wouldn't miss it for the world.

I see Fiji have had a go at the Lions not stopping off on the tour... Tongue in cheek? Still recall when the side lost 25-21 on the way home in 77.

Yes but recently the Lions haven't been about that. The oz non tests were tame affairs, the SXV sides thee pulling their players.

The Lions lost to several now called ITM sides, just as the AB sides did on tour. But it's all about who they would play. The lions wouldn't put their top side against a heartland side so wouldn't get near 100.

Perhaps, but they'd certainly get their best team out on the field. And so what if they did; the Lions ought to stick a minimum 50 on any ITMC team at a canter, all historical amateur glories aside. Doesn't stop people wanting to see it.

The Lions would put 150 on a Heartland team.

If they really wanted to put some wider significance to it, perhaps they could have played the reigning Premiership, Championship and Heartland teams, and rep teams drawn from the rest of each level respectively. That would still involve most of the non-AB players, and make for a real big ITMC the year before!

I agree to an extent, Bruce, but I've reconciled myself to the changing world (a bit). I think what would cause genuine controversy is if the SR franchises removed their best non-ABs. I think, sadly, it's almost inevitable that most of the ABs will be pulled; but if the fringe AB players and best SR non-ABs were pulled that would begin to raise questions about the whole viability of these tours. The Lions has always been about more than the tests. Many of the most famous (and controversial and brutal) matches have been the non-tests. It's where the true sense of a 'Lions tour' as opposed to simply flying in for the tests has been forged. I don't think the Lions concept can survive becoming simply another June set of tests.

Except the professionals won't be playing. I agree, should have been the ITM sides. Just cos they've heard of the Crusaders overseas doesn't mean they'll be playing them.