What is your top summer sporting event?
Andy Farrell thinks the jewel in the crown is the Test series between the British and Irish Lions and Australia that starts on Saturday. Do you agree? I don’t and I am a rugby anorak.
It may be top of my summer sporting list, but if I take a dispassionate look at what else is going on I would accept -unlike Farrell - there will be more interest and eyeballs on other events.
Something that Farrell said about the summer of sport and the British and Irish Lions place in it struck me as a bit arrogant and simply not true.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph the Lions head coach claimed this British and Irish Lions tour was the "most important thing in world sport by a country mile.”
Farrell said: ”I’ve not done my homework on this and I don’t care what the answer is but when the Lions tour gets going, when we get down to the tests, to the business end, it will be the most important thing in world sport by a country mile, whatever is going on.
Yes the Lions are special, very special to me, but where would you rate them in your summer of sport?
We have had the British Grand Prix at Silverstone won by Lando Norris a fortnight ago. The cricket Test matches between England and India have been cracking and shown live on Sky with highlights on the BBC.
At the weekend we had the Genesis Scottish Open, the Wimbledon finals and the final of the World Club championship between Chelsea and Paris St Germain.
On Friday, Scotland play Samoa in the final match of their three-match summer tour. After their loss to Fiji they need to win to end the tour on a high.
On Saturday, there is the third round of The Open from Royal Portrush and the first Test between the Lions and Australia. There is also the heavyweight boxing title fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois at Wembley stadium. That is some Saturday of sport.
The cyclists in the Tour de France arrive in Paris the following weekend which is when the final of the UEFA women’s Euros in Switzerland takes place.
I apologise if I have missed out your favourite sporting event of the summer but these are the main ones in my eyes.
There is no doubting that the Lions tests will grab attention but I would have to rank The Open, which is on the same weekend, top of the summer events if I am looking at the bigger picture.
Second for me in my rankings is Wimbledon. It would have been top of my list - even above the Lions - if Andy Murray was still playing but it hasn’t been the same since he retired.
The Lions would be top of my own sporting list but I would never think it was “a country mile” ahead of the rest like Farrell does.
It would be third overall I would think with sporting fans who don’t have rugby as their number one sport like me.
Fourth would be the cricket closely followed by the Scottish Open from the Renaissance Club, a golf tournament that does Scotland proud.
The Tour de France really captured my imagination a few years ago but that interest is now waning although it is a race that has massive worldwide appeal.
The women’s Euros has no Scottish interest but its wall-to-wall coverage on the BBC and ITV is raising the profile even further in the women’s game.
The British Grand Prix would be next on the list with the football Club World Cup bottom of my pile.
This week is the one when Farrell claims we will see the Lions dominate the general sporting headlines.
It appears even the Australian public don’t seem overwhelmed by the visiting Lions.
After all the hype suggesting that the Lions Test matches had been sold-out for ages that is simply not true.
The Australian authorities have been trying to sell tickets for all three Tests to fans who have attended the build up games with The Times reporting there are 15,000 left for the second Test in Melbourne.
If you had been put off by the ridiculous prices travel companies have been quoting for a “Lions package” you could fly straight to Melbourne and buy a ticket at face value for the second Test.
The Lions will always have a special place in the sporting calendar once every four years, but competition from other events will always be there.
The profile of the Lions on this tour has been less than usual among rank and file Scottish sports fans, and there are reasons for that.
One of the main ones - the same reason cycling fans worry that the Tour de France is going off ITV and going exclusively to a pay-per-view channel- is the number of eyes and ears, or lack of them, on the Lions tour.
Being on Sky Sports - which to be fair it always has been - and having the only live radio commentary being on the English football-obsessed station TalkSport rather than the BBC - keeps sports fans with just a passing interest in rugby no real opportunity to stumble across coverage and get interested and involved.
Read more:
-
How six Scotland stars excelled for British & Irish Lions on famous night
-
Huw Jones in line for leading Lions role in first Test as Ringrose ruled out
Australia is the poorest by far of the three countries the Lions play against and that hasn’t helped create new interest. Neither have been the games against the Australian provincial sides that the Lions have been winning relatively easily.
The game against the invitational New Zealand and Australia select that was meant to be a tough one was won 48-0 at the weekend.
It was a good day for the Scottish Lions with a hat-trick of tries from Duhan van der Merwe and one each from Sione Tuipulotu, Scott Cummings and Ben White.
The only way for Farrell’s claim that this is the “most important thing in world sport by a country mile” to be justified is for either the Aussies to win the first Test or run the Lions close to up the excitement levels.
I still think the Lions will win the series 3-0 but I would much rather it came down to a third and deciding Test match -with the Lions winning, of course.
There could be a lot of Scots on show in the first Test starting line-up through a mix of deserving their places and replacing injured players.
The Irish and English media have suggested the starting XV that beat the Brumbies 36-24 a fortnight ago will be the same as the one that faces the Wallabies, but things have moved on since then.
Hopefully Blair Kinghorn, who had to come off with a knee injury against the Brumbies, will be fit enough to start the first Test.
Read more:
The Lions have brought Irish fullback Jamie Osborne all the way from the Ireland team camp in Portugal to supposedly just give “training cover” as Kinghorn returns to full fitness.
That’s a long way to bring a player just to make up the numbers in training. I hope I am wrong but fear Kinghorn’s injury could be worse than the Lions are letting on. Ireland’s Hugo Keenan is on call to take his place.
Finn Russell was always going to be the star of the tour and in a way because he has played so often and so well in the build up games I feel his world class performances have been taken slightly for granted.
There were fears that Russell and Kinghorn, if he is fit, could be the only Scots in the starting Lions Test team but it is not as cut and dry as that.
Duhan van der Merwe may have got a hat-trick, but defensively he wasn’t great and won’t make the Test team. Tommy Freeman and James Lowe would be my Lions Test wingers.
With Russell at 10 and Jamison Gibson-Park at nine that’s the back division sorted.
In the pack Ellis Genge, Dan Sheehan and Tadhg Furlong make up the strongest front row. In the second row, there has to be captain Maro Itoje and find of the tour Joe McCarthy of Ireland.
It’s all about finding the correct blend in the back-row and there are lots of good options there.
Ollie Chessum, Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan would be my six, seven and eight.
It may not be the “most important thing in world sport” but the Lions tour is part of sporting tradition. Let’s hope they start - as they should - with a win over Australia.
Share