Welsh rugby journalist Stephen Jones believes that hosting a British & Irish Lions tour fixture in Dublin will devalue the tour.
The Lions will face Argentina at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Friday, 20 June 2025, for the Lions 1888 Cup. This will mark the first time the British & Irish Lions have played in Ireland and is intended to help prepare the team ahead of the 2025 tour to Australia. They will travel to Australia shortly afterward.
Some view this as a positive move, believing it offers rugby fans a golden opportunity to see some of the best players from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland in action.
However, not everyone is enthusiastic about the decision to hold the game in Dublin.
Renowned rugby correspondent for The Sunday Times, Stephen Jones, argues that staging the game in Dublin dilutes the tour and that Buenos Aires, Argentina, would have been a more fitting venue.
ONE YEAR TO GO 🗓️
The countdown to a historic match in Dublin begins.
20.06.25 | #Lions2025 | 🦁🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/PIkfJqJPNA
— British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) June 20, 2024
"The organisers must take more care. They have by no means wrecked the tour yet, but by organising a dullard fixture against Argentina in Dublin, they have devalued it. Does no one remember the dullard fixture at Murrayfield before the previous tour, which cost the Lions their captain? And yet again, Argentina are enlisted as the fall guys. The only way to make that fixture relevant was to play it in Buenos Aires," Jones wrote in his Sunday Times column.
Jones also criticised the proposed Invitational Australia & New Zealand versus Lions fixture before the first official Test against Australia, suggesting it won’t be taken seriously by the All Blacks.
"There are two more worrying fixtures," he added. "The Lions are meant to play a combined Australia/New Zealand team, and people are hyperventilating at a vision of the All Blacks and Wallabies teaming up. If anyone thinks that the All Blacks selectors are going to release their first team for a joke game, then they are on another planet."
British & Irish Lions Fixtures
- 20 June 2025: British & Irish Lions vs. Argentina, Aviva Stadium, Dublin
- 28 June 2025: Western Force vs. British & Irish Lions, Optus Stadium, Perth
- 2 July 2025: Queensland Reds vs. British & Irish Lions, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
- 5 July 2025: NSW Waratahs vs. British & Irish Lions, Allianz Stadium, Sydney
- 9 July 2025: ACT Brumbies vs. British & Irish Lions, GIO Stadium, Canberra
- 12 July 2025: Invitational AU & NZ vs. British & Irish Lions, Adelaide Oval, Adelaide
- 19 July 2025: Wallabies vs. British & Irish Lions (1st Test), Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
- 22 July 2025: Melbourne Pre-Test (TBC) vs. British & Irish Lions, Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
- 26 July 2025: Wallabies vs. British & Irish Lions (2nd Test), MCG, Melbourne
- 2 August 2025: Wallabies vs. British & Irish Lions (3rd Test), Accor Stadium, Sydney
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