{"id":446812,"date":"2026-02-26T14:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/446812\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T14:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:42:10","slug":"why-its-time-to-stop-using-lions-rigours-as-an-excuse-for-french-supremacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/446812\/","title":{"rendered":"Why it’s time to stop using Lions rigours as an excuse for French supremacy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is one of rugby\u2019s more intriguing statistics. In the professional era there have been eight Lions<\/a> tours, from the 1997 trip to South Africa<\/a> to last year\u2019s series in Australia.<\/p>\n

If France<\/a> win the Grand Slam this season it will be the sixth time that they have achieved a Six Nations<\/a> clean sweep immediately following a Lions tour. They won Slams in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2022. They missed out in 2014 and 2018 but that was France\u2019s \u2018lost decade\u2019 when muddled thinking, poor coaching and a weak generation of players condemned them to a period of rank mediocrity.<\/p>\n

Is it a coincidence or does a Lions tour work in France\u2019s favour the following season?<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that a Lions tour is a huge honour but one that brings with it unique pressures. In his introduction to Clem Thomas\u2019s definitive history of the Lions, Willie John McBride called a Lions tour \u201cthe supreme prize\u2026the ultimate challenge\u201d.<\/p>\n

In McBride\u2019s day a Lions tour was an epic adventure; the 1971 tourists to New Zealand, for example, played the first of their 26 matches (four of which were Tests) on May 12 and their last on August 14.<\/p>\n

\"FinnFinn Russell<\/a> has played more minutes than any other player in the British & Irish Lions squad since the start of the 2024-25 season (Photo Paul ELLIS \/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Lions who toured South Africa in 1997 played 13 matches (three Tests) between May 24 and July 5; the 2025 Lions played their first match on June 28 in Dublin, against Argentina, and their last and tenth against Australia<\/a> on August 2.<\/p>\n

Thirty players were selected for the 1971 Lions tour, five fewer than the 1997 tour and eight short of the number picked by Andy Farrell last year. In addition Farrell called up a further five players as \u2018additional cover\u2019.<\/p>\n

In short, modern Lions tours aren\u2019t what they were. More tourists and fewer matches. Alex Mitchell<\/a>, the England<\/a> scrum-half, played 211 minutes of rugby in Australia, and Marcus Smith<\/a> 225 minutes. That\u2019s not even three full matches.<\/p>\n

One Lion who did see a lot of action was Ireland<\/a> tighthead prop Tadhg Furlong. He appeared in seven matches overall, including the three Tests against the Wallabies.<\/p>\n

On the eve of the Six Nations match against England, Furlong gave short shrift to the idea that the Lions tour was to blame for Ireland\u2019s stuttering start to the championship. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s much of an excuse to be honest with you,\u201d said Furlong. Sure, he said, it was a \u2018strain\u2019 physically, but the Irishman suggested the legacy of a Lions tour was more psychological. \u201cEverything maybe seems insignificant the year after,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe they [the players] think they\u2019re better than they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one in Ireland has mentioned the Lions tour since they hammered England at Twickenham.<\/p>\n

No one in Ireland has mentioned the Lions tour since they hammered England at Twickenham.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not as if France and Italy<\/a> spent the summer on the beach sipping pina coladas. The French played three Tests in New Zealand (plus one against England at Twickenham) and Italy toured southern Africa, playing a Test against Namibia<\/a> and two against the Springboks. Although some Italians were rested, most of the Six Nations squad toured including stars such as Niccol\u00f2 Cannone,<\/p>\n

Tommaso Menoncello and Manuel Zuliani.<\/p>\n

Ten of France\u2019s Six Nations squad toured New Zealand<\/a> and several played in all three Tests. One, full-back\/wing Th\u00e9o\u00a0Attissogbe, also played against England: that\u2019s four Test matches in five weeks.<\/p>\n

Attissogbe is one of the players who features in some fascinating stats compiled by Opta on behalf of RugbyPass. Their boffins totted up the total minutes played by French and Home Nations players since the start of the 2024-25 season. Of the top 40, nineteen are French, nine are English, six are Scottish, five are Irish and Tomos Williams<\/a> is the solitary Welshman. The player who has played the most minutes in the last eighteen months is Scotland<\/a> and Bath<\/a> fly-half Finn Russell (3,759), followed by the French pair Louis Bielle-Biarrey<\/a> (3,539) and Thomas Ramos<\/a> (3,427). The forward with the most minutes under his belt is Ireland\u2019s Tadhg Beirne<\/a> with 3,301, placing him sixth in the list.<\/p>\n

\"<aAll Blacks v France\u201d width=\u201d1200\u2033 height=\u201d750\u2033 \/> Several of France\u2019s Six Nations squad faced an arduous three-Test Series in New Zealand over the summer (Photo Michael Bradley\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Italy aren\u2019t included in the list but last season Niccol\u00f2 Cannone and Menoncello both played 26 games last season while Zuliani made 29 appearances.<\/p>\n

At the start of this season World Rugby introduced new welfare guidelines that limit players to a maximum of 30 full games in a season. They are just recommendations but they should be followed, for the sake of the players. Freeman spoke last week about what 34 games in a season does to a player.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout realising it, I think I was tired,\u201d he said. \u201cMy body felt like I was OK to go and I was saying to coaches: \u2018Yeah I\u2019m fine, I\u2019m fine.\u2019 I just think mentally it was a bit more of a struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freeman had five weeks rest and recuperation after the Lions tour, as did most of the British and Irish players involved in summer tours whether with the Lions or their countries.<\/p>\n

The URC and Premiership seasons began on the weekend of September 25\/26, three weeks after the Top 14.<\/p>\n

Furlong is right: Lions tours shouldn\u2019t be used by the Home Nations as an excuse for a poor Six Nations. They weren\u2019t in 2014 when Ireland won the championship or in 2018 when they achieved the Grand Slam.<\/p>\n

French players who toured New Zealand weren\u2019t so fortunate. Take the Toulouse<\/a> centre, Pierre-Louis Barassi<\/a>, who played in the final of the Top 14<\/a> against Bordeaux<\/a> on June 28. The next day he jumped on a plane to New Zealand and lined up against the All Blacks on July 12.<\/p>\n

He had a couple of weeks off in August but was selected for Toulouse\u2019s first game of the 2025\/26 Top 14 on September 7. By the time the Celts and English started their seasons he already had 240 minutes of rugby under his belt.<\/p>\n

Barassi played continuously until he was concussed in the November Test against Fiji, an injury that sidelined him for ten weeks. Some French players are flogged until they drop.<\/p>\n

Furlong is right: Lions tours shouldn\u2019t be used by the Home Nations as an excuse for a poor Six Nations. They weren\u2019t in 2014 when Ireland won the championship or in 2018 when they achieved the Grand Slam.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

France tend to do better in \u2018even\u2019 Six Nations years because they play England and Ireland in Paris. France won at Twickenham in the 2005 Six Nations but had to wait until 2023 for their next championship victory.<\/p>\n

If the Bleus do win the Grand Slam this year it won\u2019t be because they\u2019re fresher than their rivals. It will be because they are better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is one of rugby\u2019s more intriguing statistics. In the professional era there have been eight Lions tours,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-446812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}