Even though we get a month off post season, that month is usually occupied with scheming new calls, tactics and putting up with daily calls from the workaholic Shaun Edwards, who is normally pretending to have some sort of holiday as well.

The break has been good, but the brain still needs some stimulation so when my old mate from the 'thesilverfern' asked me to write a piece I thought 'why not', and here it is - of Lions and tours.

Having just read that Gordon D'Arcy has been called up to the Lions in South Africa my fears that my Wasps mates Ian McGeechan and Shaun might have got the numbers wrong for their tour might be realised.

I know they wanted to keep things tight but by naming only 37 players I think their preparation might be compromised by this.  A fact at Wasps is that it is very rare to see Phil Vickery and Simon Shaw out on the training field two days after a game, and I hear it is the same for players like Martyn Williams.

An example would be the naming of only five props.  With three involved in a game that only leaves two left for the preparation of the next - and if one of those two is carrying a niggle that means things like scrum and lineout training is hindered.

I just hope the Lions aren't limping into the first test and calling players into a touring group means those players don't quite have the same sort of game understanding, and have not been around when previous mistakes have been dealt with and sorted out.

The physicality of the game these days means players take longer to recover and one thing current players aren't used to is playing every four days like days gone.

I think this was the reasoning behind Geech waiting until so late in the first tour game before making substitutions - he would have preferred to only have 15 players doing recovery the day after, not 22.  Also he would have wanted two groups of 15 players having a decent 80 minutes under their belt going into game three.  With players like Shaw, Vickery, Lee Mears and company who have not played much rugby in the last month this is important.

Every time the Lions tour it is the highlight of the rugby year or at worst the highlight every two years (taking into account the World Cup might make up the other two years).  What makes the Lions such a highlight, both in a rugby sense and financial sense?

A tour.  Simple, easy really, it is a rugby tour.  It baffles me why World Rugby don't understand this.  Sure the Super 14, Tri nations and the Six Nations etc are vital to TV revenues but my point is, would we need all this if tours were allowed?

When the All Blacks play in the Autumn internationals in November do they see anything of England apart from Heathrow, the M4 to Cardiff and so on?

Surely a trip to play Cornwall for example would boost the playing numbers in that county, give the local community a financial boost (and the sponsors who in turn would be more prepared to sponsor the local clubs) and fill a 30,000 stadium which in turn would feed back to the clubs.

A game like that every two years would be more beneficial than a hand out of the same value from the RFU?  You could reverse it to the Southern Hemisphere as well and add a bit of spice to the rugby calendar.

(Leon Holden is a NZer who has coached at NPC level in NZ and has just finished a four stint at London Wasps as forwards coach)