British and Irish Lions tour 'not insured' if cancelled - WRU chief Phillips

Maro Itoje was able to celebrate with his family on the 2017 Lions tour to New Zealand, but games may be played behind closed doors in South Africa

The home unions will be uninsured for any financial losses if the British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa does not go ahead, says Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Steve Phillips.

He also says it is "unrealistic" for the traditional "sea of red" fans to be allowed to support the tour.

"The general business concept is that there is no such thing as Covid-19 insurance," said Phillips.

"We've all had to learn to live with that."

The governing bodies of Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales jointly run the Lions and stand to lose several million pounds each in commercial income if the tour is cancelled.

Phillips says each nation knows "there would be no expectation of that [a cancelled tour] being insured".

The Lions plan to go ahead with the tour in South Africa as originally planned before the coronavirus pandemic struck.

A proposal to play the tour in Australia was rejected and Lions board member Phillips says a potential plan to play matches in Britain and Ireland was rejected due to time sensitivities.

"We're plotting to go to South Africa, but if there was some governmental intervention then the matter is taken out of our hands," said Phillips.

"By then there will be no UK and Ireland option, it'll be all about delivering a successful tour of South Africa.

"We remain confident that we're going, but in these challenging times something could happen in May or June and we'll have to rethink the whole thing again.

"But the plan is we're going to South Africa, the Lions as a touring organisation. Being realistic the idea of a 'sea of red' [travelling fans] is a little bit optimistic.

"A usual Lions tour has circa 30,000 people going - I can't see that happening. In terms of the tour schedule, you have to be agile and have to adapt. We've confirmed we're going to South Africa and will need to bubble. They're not going to get the usual freedoms.

"We may have to focus on playing in fewer venues, as that protects the bio-bubble. There is work ongoing about whether the original schedule is the right one.

"On quarantine, the Pakistan cricket team are touring South Africa in April, which is still on track. There are exemptions for elite sporting teams and, to the best our knowledge, they'll be in place."

Wales tour conundrum

Phillips, who has been confirmed as permanent WRU chief executive, is also wrestling with Wales' hopes of going on tour to Argentina and possibly Uruguay in the summer.

He said Wales should expect to play a summer Test series even if they cannot travel abroad and that a decision on whether to fly to South America will need to be made soon.

"We're trying to work things out, but we'll have to do something within a month otherwise we'll be out of time," said Phillips.

"If we're not permitted to travel to Argentina for whatever reason, I think we've all learnt to be very agile and to adapt to anything.

"So if we convert that then to if we were unable to travel to Argentina and we ended up playing 'home' as you put it, you can put that into the mix.

"The key point is, we're playing international rugby. Ideally we stick to the arrangement we have with Argentina, but as we've demonstrated over the last six or seven months we have to be very agile and adapt, like all the things we had to do with the Autumn Nations Cup and Six Nations."