Surge.

The British and Irish Lions’ tour of South Africa this summer looks set to be cancelled and moved to next year as cases across the UK and South Africa continue to surge at an exponential rate.

Ireland has also been hit with a  record number of cases in recent days with a Christmas backlog in excess of 9000 cases set to be announced in the coming days, with many countries unable to deal with a new strain of the coronavirus that is spreading rapidly.

And according to Chris Foy of the Daily Mail, it’s looking the Lions will fall victim to recent events with their tour of South Africa in danger of being postponed now more than ever.

Contingency plans were put in place a number of months ago in this event and it looks like they are now being brought forward as organisers look to make a huge decision and pull the plug on this summer.

It has previously been made very clear that tour cannot proceed without crowds and that position has not changed, despite the broadcast revenue that the series would generate.

All three Tests, including the fixture at the 92,000 capacity, Soccer City Stadium have all sold out with two of them reaching capacity in record time.

Moving the tour forward a year will obviously bring a number of complications but cancelling it entirely is highly unlikely given the scale of the event which takes place only every four years.