The highly-anticipated British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa is set to go ahead as originally scheduled in July and August next year.
In an exclusive from Telegraph Sport, it’s reported that official confirmation is expected next week, while ticket and travel packages for the highly-anticipated tour will soon go on sale.
READ: ‘We’ve thrown away textbook for Lions tour’
Despite an uncertain time and talks that the tour could be pushed back to later in 2021 amid plans for a global season to be restructured for greater alignment between the southern and northern hemisphere, it now appears the Lions tour will go on as originally planned.
Over 30,000 rugby-mad supporters are expected to travel to South Africa for what is said to be the most lucrative rugby competition outside of the World Cup.
‘We had to make a call on this now as we were running out of time,’ one source told The Telegraph. ‘People need to move on tickets, flights and hotel bookings and it is so important to South Africa to have certainty now given the financial importance of the tour to them at a time when we are all struggling with the impact of Covid-19.’
DATE |
FIXTURE |
LOCATION |
STADIUM |
Saturday 3 July 2021 | Stormers v British & Irish Lions | Cape Town | Cape Town Stadium |
Wednesday 7 July 2021 | South Africa ‘Invitational’ v British & Irish Lions | Port Elizabeth | Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium |
Saturday 10 July 2021 | Sharks v British & Irish Lions | Durban | Kings Park |
Wednesday 14 July 2021 | South Africa ‘A’ v British & Irish Lions | Mbombela | Mbombela Stadium |
Saturday 17 July 2021 | Vodacom Bulls v British & Irish Lions | Pretoria | Loftus Versfeld |
Saturday 24 July 2021 | South Africa v British & Irish Lions | Joburg | FNB Stadium |
Saturday 31 July 2021 | South Africa v British & Irish Lions | Cape Town | Cape Town Stadium |
Saturday 7 August 2021 | South Africa v British & Irish Lions | Joburg | Emirates Airline Park |