With the results of the ballot set to be emailed to registrants on Friday, SA Rugby confirmed that more than 260,000 users had visited the official ticketing website.

‘We would like to thank all our local fans for the massive support by showing interest in buying tickets for the British & Irish Lions tour next year,’ Roux said.

‘The last couple of months have been challenging as we fought the Covid-19 pandemic, and it was heart-warming to see the interest from South Africans to experience a truly unique tour, which comes around only once every 12 years.

‘As we’ve expected, interest in the three Tests was extremely high – they are two to three times oversubscribed – but we are confident that we’ll get as many people as possible into the stadiums.’

Roux reiterated that the draw for tickets will be done by a computerised selection process and that supporters who have applied for tickets may not receive everything they have applied for, while the high demand for tickets means applicants may not be successful at all.

‘We also know that not everyone will take up the tickets they are issued and there will be a resale phase later on, so all doors are not necessarily closed,’ he explained.

‘But we do want to warn fans and discourage them from buying from illicit vendors as those tickets cannot be guaranteed.’

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