Warren Gatland has made a last plea to Premiership Rugby to reschedule its final next season as part of the global calendar negotiations to give the British and Irish Lions adequate preparation time ahead of their tour of South Africa.
Next year's Premiership final is scheduled for June 26, just seven days before the Lions' first fixture against the Western Stormers in Cape Town. Gatland, who will take charge of his third Lions tour, has revealed that a similar lack of preparation time ahead of the tour to New Zealand in 2017 led to him raising concerns with the management about the risk of legal action if a player was injured as a consequence.
With talks continuing between the unions and clubs over proposals to restructure the global season, which could mean the Lions tour switching from July to September, and club rugby played through the summer months, Gatland insisted all parties had a duty to deliver on a commitment to improve player welfare.
"It has been a little bit frustrating with the Premiership not moving their final," Gatland said. "That may change with the reintroduction of the season. We will have to wait and see. The ideal situation would have been to have a full week together in the UK, play a warm-up game and get on the plane the following day and head to South Africa.
"I don't think assembling a squad for two weeks before you play your first game in South Africa is too much of an unreasonable request. Last time, in New Zealand, we left on the Monday, had two days' travel and arrived on the Wednesday. The players were jet-lagged and had to play the first game on the Saturday. I did point that out to the powers-that-be and the Lions and said we were potentially opening ourselves up [to legal action]. I said if a player got a career-ending injury in the first game, I think he had potentially got a legitimate claim to say that the preparation wasn't adequate or he didn't have enough time from arriving in New Zealand before he was made to play his first game.
"Those are things we have got to be careful about. Everyone talks about player welfare, and it is one of the criteria in looking at seasons and planning and preparation. We have got to deliver that."
Gatland is urging the Premiership to reconsider and bring its final forward by a week, as the Pro14 has already committed to, and insists the clubs would benefit directly from giving the Lions the best chance of success.
"The Pro14 did it and I wasn't quite sure why the Premiership weren't prepared to do the same," he added. "I am not sure why there doesn't seem to be the appetite to be really positive and try to work together in terms of helping the Lions.
"If the players go away on the Lions and win a series, it creates so much interest from new supporters who probably don't follow clubs. You have got this potential to create superstars as household names and legends. To me, if that happens to a club, you can use that and promote that and it benefits everyone. I would like to see a little bit more cooperation but that is something we are continually battling with and I will keep banging away."
Gatland insists the Lions, too, are prepared to be flexible on the scheduling of their tour if switching it to a September start is key to reaching agreement on the global calendar talks, which centre on moving the July test window to October.
"Probably the ideal scenario for us is that we would like to stay in the time-frame where it is at the moment but if it means having to move -because it is a positive for everyone, I think we are prepared to do that," Gatland added.
"There is no doubt the southern hemisphere recognises how important the Lions tour is to their calendar every four years, it creates a lot of stimulus financially not only for the home unions but also the host country and creates a huge amount of interest from the fans."
The uncertainty in the scheduling is proving a challenge in his plans for the tour. A recce trip to South Africa next month has been postponed, while recruitment of his backroom staff and coaching team has been put on hold because of the Covid-19 lockdown.
As head coach of the Chiefs, Gatland is due to return to the UK at the end of August, following the end of the Super Rugby Aotearoa campaign. He says he intends to speak to the chief executives of the four home unions ahead of appointing his staff to ensure that there is no repeat of his frustrations four years ago when several candidates became unavailable, including the current Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend.
"I have some approaches from individuals and from agents about people, as I did last time," he added. "I was interested in a few people, had spoken to one or two and then for whatever reason, people then became unavailable. It was a bit frustrating. The important thing now is that I have changed the process. I want to get around all the chief executives of the four home unions and talk to them. I will ask which of their staff are potentially not available so that we don't end up with that same situation going forward.
"I have found working with the Lions incredibly stimulating and there is no doubt that I think that all the four nations have benefited incredibly from the tours. Everyone takes the best out of the tour back to their home nation and club and implements the things that have been successful, as a player or coach."
Having first worked as an assistant coach under Sir Ian McGeechan on the tour of South Africa in 2009, Gatland's passion for the Lions is a central theme of his autobiography Pride and Passion, which has been shortlisted for the Rugby Book of the Year at the Telegraph Sports Book Awards.
Having guided the tourists to victory in Australia in 2013, and a historic drawn series against New Zealand four years later, Gatland has already secured his place in Lions folklore. Next year offers him the chance to complete what is likely to be his last tour in charge unbeaten against the southern hemisphere "big three".
"The dream is to be undefeated in the test series in three tours as head coach," he added. "Going forward it is probably an opportunity for someone else to step up and take the mantle. If I can be of any service, in terms of helping the Lions, in terms of sharing experiences, I would love to follow them again.
"I still have a huge passion for it and am very fortunate for my experiences I have had. I have done my time. But it is like anything, they might come and knock on my door and say 'We don't think anyone else has got the experience and would you do it again?'
"Then you reassess everything but they would probably say I have been in charge for three tours, is it right for someone else to have a go. I am comfortable with that."
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