The British & Irish Lions could make history on an eight-game tour of South Africa in 2021, with Warren Gatland’s side set to play in front of the largest-ever crowd for a Lions Test since the game turned professional after the itinerary was announced on Wednesday.
The hotly-anticipated tour will span the length and breadth of South Africa, visiting some of the most impressive stadiums in world sport and culminating in three Test matches against the newly-crowned Rugby World Cup champions, the Springboks.
FNB Stadium in Johannesburg will host the first Test on Saturday, July 24 and with a capacity of approximately 88,000 spectators, a sell-out crowd would be higher than the 84,188 who witnessed the series decider against the Wallabies in Sydney in 2001.
The second Test follows a week later at the Cape Town Stadium – the first Lions Test in the Mother City since 1997 – before the British and Irish tourists return to Gauteng for the final Test on Saturday, August 7 at Emirates Airline Park.
The combined capacity for the three-Test venues is just below 205,000, which could make the three Tests on the 2021 tour the best-attended since professionalism, potentially surpassing the 192,972 people who attended the three Tests in Australia in 2013.
The eight-game schedule includes six-weekend fixtures; three against Super Rugby teams the Bulls, Sharks and Stormers, and two-midweek fixtures against an invitational side in Port Elizabeth and South Africa ‘A’ in Nelspruit.
Full 2021 tour schedule:
Saturday, July 3: British & Irish Lions v DHL Stormers – Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town
Wednesday, July 7: British & Irish Lions v SA ‘Invitational’ – Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth
Saturday, July 10: British & Irish Lions v Cell C Sharks – Jonsson Kings Park, Durban
Wednesday, July 14: British & Irish Lions v South Africa ‘A’ – Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit
Saturday, July 17: British & Irish Lions v Vodacom Bulls – Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
Saturday, July 24 (first Test): Springboks v British & Irish Lions – FNB Stadium, Johannesburg
Saturday, July 31 (second Test): Springboks v British & Irish Lions – Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town
Saturday, August 7 (third Test): Springboks v British & Irish Lions – Emirates Airline Park, Johannesburg
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