Stephen Jones, writing in The Sunday Times, believes that the 2009 Lions should be the last to tour under their current circumstances.
"Anybody out there feel guilty as hell now, whether back at home in the four nations, or out here among the South Africans who have demeaned the Lions? The Lions came heroically close yesterday in the cruellest Test, and it may have been you — yes, you — who cost them the game.
"Pretoria is known as the Jacaranda City for the fleeting spring months when the trees are in purple bloom and soften the brutal functionality of this place. It is an appropriate city in which to mark the death of the Lions’ dreams, because South Africa has provided an uninspired, charmless (and unfair and lazy) environment for this ill-fated tour.
"Let us blame our hosts, yet let us also blame ourselves. The Lions have been adrift here, living an existence independent of meaningful back-up from the rest of rugby in Britain and Ireland, and seen in South Africa not so much as an institution to be treasured, but as an opportunity to be milked for commercial gain.
"Many South Africans are beginning to rival the New Zealanders, who now see the Lions and their supporters — who sat in a gigantic red wall yesterday, 25,000 strong — simply as a money-making machine. Official statistics show that the 2005 New Zealand tour made £100m from British and Irish pockets. Among South African hoteliers, taxi drivers, airlines, restaurateurs and tourist-trappers, the affection for the Lions borders on the delirious."
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