While we digest details of that inaugural Lions tour of New Zealand (not totally positive), news comes of a tour of a quite different order.
For the first time the USA Eagles will play two tests in South Africa in July. The venues alone may make future Lions a touch envious, first Ellis Park Johannesburg, second Loftus Versveld Pretoria. Both have paraded mighty clashes of arms.
(Part of the reason for this choice is that the matches are double-headers).
For both teams this is momentous news.
The Springboks
Till now they have had to travel far to encounter challenging opposition; they stand head and shoulders above all other African nations.
They could only look on with a degree of envy as their new opponents enjoyed regular high-quality matches in the Pacific-Four Series.
Their head coach, Swys de Bruin, is delighted. One of his targets has been to set his squad against top-10 sides.
The USA currently stand 8th in world rankings, South Africa 10th, their highest ever. Those stats alone add piquancy to the tour.
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The Boks are the one women’s team who could most easily take a giant step forward on the world stage. Rugby is the very heartbeat of the nation; the male Springboks are the envy of the world.
An RWC defeat of Italy (29-24) showed the women Boks’ potential. They reached the quarter-finals for the first time.
The USA
The Eagles resemble the Boks in their potential. The one essential contrast is in the standing of the game in the nation’s sporting preferences.
This tour, to a new continent for them, should act as an additional attraction for would-be players.
One key weakness has been the average age at which Americans take up the sport – rather similar to the early days of the 1980s, when most women didn’t pick up a ball until reaching university.
WER
A crucial building-block for the USA is the second season of the Women’s Elite Rugby tournament. It’s due to start in May, the date fitting in, we must hope, with the plans of Jack Hanratty, the new Eagles’ coach.
But those dates, May-July, are probably not what he needs. He would surely prefer to select as many home-grown players as possible in his national squad. The less he needs to rely on English PWR-based players the better.
The WER franchises are busy attracting the highest quality players they can lay their hands on.
And more good news
Even more encouraging, the two unions have agreed a two-match tour for their Under 20s sides, to take place in July in Cape Town.
This step is every bit as significant as the first, for the Americans in particular.
The key word these days is ‘pathway’. It is the vital ingredient in ensuring constant growth in a union’s structures.
