Matt Dawson: It would be insane for the Lions not to tour France

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Preliminary discussions have been held with the French about playing a one-off pre-tour match in France before the next tour to New Zealand in 2029. Dawson, though, thinks the Lions should work towards a full tour of the country.

"If that doesn't happen at some stage that is probably going to be one of the greatest sporting misses ever," Dawson told The Times. "It would be insane not to do a Lions tour of France and to put it on the roster. I know that upsets the apple cart and there is significant revenue every 12 years for Australia, New Zealand and South Africa at the moment. But this is about broadening the game.

"The Lions in France could catapult the game globally into a different stratosphere. I think it could be that important, and hopefully the southern hemisphere sides will understand. Do we do it every three years? I don't know, but that would be the magic step for me.

"All of a sudden it opens up the Lions to millions of people that have got no chance of watching the Lions. I bet you a lot of French people would love to go on a Lions tour. And imagine how many people from Britain and Ireland love watching on television but never in their wildest dreams could they think that they are going to go down to the southern hemisphere. [Going to France] would be off the charts. What a tour."

The Lions executives are understood to be intrigued about the possibility of playing games in France and believe that the women's Lions could break ground for the men. The women are to tour New Zealand in 2027, playing provincial games and a Test series like the men, but are then likely to organise a tour to France, where the women's club game is strong.

It would be easiest for the men's team to start with a one-off match against France, similar to the pre-Tour game against Argentina in Dublin next Friday. The Lions have faced a France XV before, in a one-off game in October 1989, months after their trip to Australia, when they won 29-27 at Parc des Princes in front of 29,000 fans as part of the celebrations marking the bicentenary of the French revolution.

The length of the French league season, though, would pose a problem. This season, the Top 14 final is on June 28, the day the Lions play their first tour match against Western Force in Perth.

The Lions have already managed to secure a wider release window for their players under World Rugby rules until the mid 2030s but that does not yet apply to the French. The Top 14 organisers, Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR), have shown some flexibility for the new World Club Cup in 2028, when they will move their final.

The Lions are wary that if they were to add France to their touring schedule they would probably have to remove one of their traditional destinations or play one of the southern hemisphere sides less frequently.

The touring schedule, once locked into 12-year, three-tour blocks, is now organised as its own joint-venture with the host country. The New Zealand tour, slated for 2029, has not been fully rubber-stamped yet but that will be a formality.

The former Scotland No8, John Beattie, thinks the Lions should become a global touring side again, rekindling memories of the past when they would play Tests against the United States, Canada, Sri Lanka and Fiji on tours around the world.

Beattie was a Lion in 1980 and 1983 and part of the side that played a one-off match in Cardiff against "The Rest" in 1986 when there was no trip to South Africa because of apartheid. "The Lions should be a global force for rugby, playing all over the world," he told The Times. "Big games, selling out stadiums. They should be playing in Argentina. They should be playing in America. They should be playing in China. India. You've got 1.4billion people in India, right? You've got 66million people in the UK.

"You've got 1.6billion in China. They should be turned on to rugby. Americans too; there are 300-odd million Americans playing a stop-start game called American football. We should be taking the Lions there and selling rugby there."