Are Summer Tours The Downfall Of Northern Hemisphere Rugby

After a year-long season the Home Nations finally get the chance to put their feet up following the latest round of summer tours to the southern hemisphere.

The question is, should they even have been down there in the first place, after what Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll described as a “52-week season”.

O’Driscoll spoke for many when he said: “I do not think the game would suffer if there were no summer tours after a World Cup.”

England tour manager Rob Andrew echoed his complaints.

“A lot of the players have been going for 12 months. Our World Cup training started exactly 12 months ago, so it’s been a very, very long year for the guys.”

Tired though they may have been, Ireland were at least able to take a virtually full-strength side across the equator.

The same could not be said for England, Wales and Scotland.

Andrew estimated England headed for New Zealand without “10 or 11” of their first-choice squad.

Wales were without half a dozen frontline players for their trip to South Africa and Scotland were shorn of a handful of big names, admittedly as much through club commitments as injury.

The Scots at least managed their first win in four attempts in Argentina and just their second in nine games against the Pumas overall.

The hosts were themselves missing a clutch of first-choice players, but with the likes of John Barclay taking the chance to make his mark, coach Frank Hadden will have returned a contented man.

Ireland - much to their frustration - suffered brave defeats against New Zealand and Australia, but it was a different story for England and Wales.

After claiming their second Grand Slam in fours years back in March, Welsh fans were relishing the chance to measure themselves against the world champion Springboks.

But once the extent to which their side had been weakened became apparent, many fans felt their excitement fade, to be replaced by resignation about their under-strength team’s chances.

A first-Test battering duly followed, and although Wales produced a much-improved effort second time out, the scoreboard was still heavily against them.

Head coach Warren Gatland insisted the tour was an important step on the road to winning the 2011 World Cup.

"Playing against teams like South Africa is a good litmus test, it's a new level for us,” he said.

“We need to look at England, who tried to play southern hemisphere opposition as much as possible.

“First they began beating them at Twickenham, which got their confidence up, then they started winning away from home and then they went on to win the World Cup."

And despite their two hammerings by the All Blacks, Andrew insisted “we’ve learnt an awful lot over the last two matches”.

There is some history here of course. England’s disastrous 1998 tour of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa was labelled the “Tour from Hell” after a callow side was hammered by all three southern hemisphere giants.

After Saturday’s defeat Andrew insisted the current trip was “certainly not a 'Tour from Hell' by any stretch of the imagination”, and even that sorry adventure a decade ago had its plus points.

Jonny Wilkinson talks of it as an important staging post on the way to England’s 2003 World Cup victory and who knows if the likes of Danny Care, Tom Rees and Luke Narraway will look back in similar fashion in the years to come.

But the fact that the phrase crops up again virtually every summer tells its own story.

It is a tale of, at best tired, and at worst, hugely under-strength parties from the Home Nations heading off to be slaughtered in the southern winter.

For all the brave words about blooding youngsters and learning about players, the Home Nations won just one match out of nine this summer, Scotland’s win over Argentina.

England have now lost nine away Tests in a row to the three southern hemisphere powers since winning the 2003 World Cup on Australian soil.

This is Test match rugby, not a game of touch rugby in the park with your mates, and the opposition is intimidating enough as it is without taking them on with one hand tied behind your backs.

Victory should be everything, which means taking the field with the best weaponry at your disposal.

So has the time come, at least in post-World Cup years, to call a halt to these tours?