It is perhaps entirely apt that the British and Irish Lions’ first game on Irish soil should follow such a well-worn script: a travelling red army of about 25,000 swelling the same number of Irish-based supporters who made the game a sell-out, another example of the commercial beast that the Lions represents, a whopping boost to the local economy and, eh, another defeat. The Lions really are the perfect tourists.
The Lions wanted a proper warm-up game and a boost to the coffers and weren’t disappointed on either count. Losing to Argentina was not especially encouraging, it has to be said. Nor was it the end of the world, but it was yet another towering example of what the Lions means to rugby fans in the four home countries.
Although even 10-year ticket holders balked at prices of €195 per ticket, ie the guts of €400 a pair before even buying a couple of pints, and there were small pockets of empty seats, the official attendance was a 51,700 sell-out.
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It is known that 25,000 tickets were sold in the UK, and the amount of English accents especially, but also Welsh and Scottish in addition to Irish fans, was plain to hear. The environs of D4 and D2 turned red for the best part of two days, and it was also striking how virtually everyone on the streets and particularly in the Aviva on match night wore replica jerseys.
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There was a smattering from the 2017 tour but the vast majority – literally as well as figuratively – bought into the brand. It’s reckoned that the Lions jersey is the bestselling replica rugby top in the world.
No doubt the buy-in has been accentuated by the 2021 tour taking place in South African echo chambers after the warm-up game against Japan in Murrayfield was restricted to 16,500. This first full-house since the third Test in Eden Park in 2017 was the biggest attendance since the third Test in Sydney four years earlier.
All those money-saving kitties, from individuals to clubs, have been building up for eight years rather than the customary four, and word of mouth will again ensure the same four years hence. Everyone’s a winner and that’s the truth.
After paying the Argentinian Rugby Union a fee estimated at €1 million, the Lions will accrue some €4 million in gate receipts, to distribute equally among the four home unions.
Due to sharing, the IRFU only received a quarter of the estimated €350-400,000 that the Lions paid for hiring the Aviva Stadium, but this still made for a fitting finale to the Union’s 150th anniversary. Especially as the stadium owners will need to fund the stadium’s refurbishments. It’s 15-years-old now.
Former Lions also jump aboard the gravy train. Last Thursday evening, there were queues outside various events around D4 and D2, including an official show at the RDS theatre, and nearly all those paying customers were wearing one of their replica jerseys (well, one hopes they have more than one!).
Howden Insurance, the official sponsors of the Lions, hired the Lansdowne clubhouse for the week, to invite their guests and corporate clients on Friday after branding the walls with framed Lions photographs, at a cost believed to be about €100,000. A company has to maximise its window of opportunity as the front-of-jersey Lions sponsor.
The glorious weather and 8pm kick-off on a Friday evening added to the carnival-like occasion, and was a boon for local businesses, compared with the early Saturday afternoon Leinster games of late.
Restaurants and bars all reported good business both before and after the game, even if the clear-out of the corporate sector began before kick-off sooner than usual.
Accounts vary as to how busy the aisles were with supporters carrying trays of beer. But not only would there never be a comparable sea of green for an Irish game, the crowd seemed hugely engaged; launching into a second rendition of The Fields inside the last five minutes in the forlorn pursuit of a winning try.
A warm-up match or two in Argentina and/or elsewhere in South America would spread the gospel but one ventures a home warm-up game is here to stay now and will henceforth rotate between the four nations.
Los Pumas gatecrashed the party to deservedly make their own piece of history. They don’t have a fully professional league of their own, and Felipe Contepomi was also without a dozen frontline players due to club commitments and injuries. Yet they pulled together a side from all corners of the rugby world for their first game in seven months in something of a tactical coup for what was a team against a collection of individuals.
As ever, Los Pumas become supermen in blue and white. Santiago Carreras gave a passable impression of the absent Juan Cruz Mallia. Justo Piccardo, the inexperienced 23-year-old centre from Los Pampas, whose sole Test cap was off the bench against Ireland last November, looked absolutely the part. The nimble-footed scrumhalf Gonzalo García, who was brilliant, started only eight games for Zebre last season. Man of the match and match-winner Tomás Albornoz was second-choice outhalf for Benetton toward the end of last season.
And it was a win true to him and Los Pumas. After a well-crafted first try off two phases, the long-range tries off transition were worthy of winning any match. Albornoz finished the first and instigated the second with that feint to kick and dummy past Tom Curry before fending Henry Pollock and linking with Joaquin Oviedo. Matias Moroni, only just on, couldn’t have executed his grubber any better and there was fellow sub Santiago Cordero winning the touchdown. “It was about expressing themselves,” said Contepomi.
In the final irony, on a night when a Lions side featured three Connacht players for the first time in history, Cordero is in his final few days as Connacht-contracted player. It’s a pity his time there didn’t go to plan but the 31-year-old still has something to offer.
Los Pumas haven’t always been so likable, but you gotta love them, especially these ones.
