Rugby: Summer tours are back on the right track at last

Ignore the logistics for a minute and imagine if the Lions toured the southern hemisphere every year, playing one Test annually against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Now traditional tours by individual countries are thankfully back on the global agenda. From 2012, the leading countries in Europe will play proper three-Test series against the SANZAR giants, plus Argentina, while also returning to the Pacific Islands and even Japan.

In the case of sporting conflict, familiarity so often breeds tedium, which is exactly why pleas for Lions tours to become more frequent have been rightly ignored. Scarcity is part of the appeal.

England will get the ball rolling with a series in South Africa and it will have the feel of a Lions expedition.

A series also gives time for sub-plots and dramas and conflicts to emerge and evolve.

Reviving proper tours in June may be a nod to nostalgia, but the move is founded on commercial imperatives, too, as crowds and revenues are down for these June matches, which are too often one-sided.

With midweek games thrown in it allows fringe players to stay involved and the whole exercise will hold a greater sense of resonance and purpose.

In Europe, attendances and bank balances are well catered for during the November Test window, but proper series would be an improvement then, too.

On the flip-side, when a true contest materialises, as was the case last summer when France won a Test in Dunedin and New Zealand hit back in Wellington, 1-1 is not a satisfactory conclusion. It was crying out for a decider.

This is where the familiarity argument kicks in. Back in the day, a visit by the All Blacks was a major event, but now that mystique and air of expectation has been somewhat eroded by regularity. They have come to Twickenham during the last four years of autumn internationals.

A real series would carry more weight than the endless round of one-off Tests. England could play the likes of Fiji or Samoa at the start of November, followed by a three-Test series against New Zealand, Australia, South Africa or Argentina.

In the interests of expansion, the RFU could take one match each year to the provinces - to Old Trafford, Villa Park or St James’ Park.

The public don’t moan about repetition during an Ashes series, which comes to these shores once every four years.

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