The season is coming to a close in Europe, which means the Summer Tours are only a few weeks away. Each team knows where they stand after the ferociously close Six Nations, and know what they need to work on. The biggest question facing all the top coaches was the choice between taking your top players or resting them ahead of the World Cup cycle which starts in September. Once the season starts again at the end of the year the international players will get no rest for nigh on twenty-one months. Just let that sink in. A physically exhausting, high impact sport with no rest for nearly two years. No one-month recuperation to let your body fix itself, instead, your summer will most likely be spent in the baking heat or in extreme altitude pushing yourself beyond your limit to try and make that 30 man squad come September.
To that end some coaches have opted to leave behind their best players this summer, allowing those who played in the Lions series, and those who they know what they can do, to get a longer rest and decent pre-season. Others have decided the opposite, a chance to build some momentum against the Southern Hemisphere heavyweights, a chance to right the wrongs that appeared in February and March. So which is the better option?
 |
| Stander and Murray probably thanking Joe Schmidt for a break this summer after their heroics last summer. |
