With 2024 drawing to a close, sports fans are eagerly awaiting 2025 and looking ahead to the summer the Lions tour to Australia is one of the most hotly anticipated events in the calendar.
The Lions will be coached by Ireland boss Andy Farrell as they take on the Wallabies in three test matches over successive weekends.
Before the first of the test matches on July 19th in Brisbane, the Lions will play six fixtures in the build-up, the first of which is set to take place in Dublin at the Aviva Stadium.
Argentina will travel to face the Lions on Friday June 20th with tickets for the match already completely sold out. This will be the first time the Lions will have played in Ireland.
Concerns have been raised by some however about the impact the fixture could have on the players and the tour on the whole.
Stephen Jones raises concerns about Lions games
Writing in the Sunday Times today Stephen Jones expresses his belief that having the Lions playing Argentina in Dublin devalues the tour.
"The organisers must take more care," Jones writes.
"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 goes onto highlight the fact that the Lions are also scheduled to play two other "worrying fixtures" before the tests, a match against an invitational Australia/New Zealand combined team and another game against an Indigenous XV, which Jones describes as "bonkers."
Australia, who are coached by Joe Schmidt, aren't scheduled to play another test match until they face the Lions but like their rivals will play game's in the build-up to the tour.
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