Wallabies ratchet up the pressure

SUDDENLY, Jake White’s prediction of doom for the British & Irish Lions should they lose Saturday’s first Test against Australia possesses extra foreboding.

All it took was for White’s ACT Brumbies to execute the formula he and his coaches Laurie Fisher and Stephen Larkham calculated would unsettle Warren Gatland’s tourists, and lead to their first defeat by a provincial side since Northern Transvaal turned over the 1997 Lions in South Africa.

The Lions have lost non-Test tour matches since, but Australia A in 2001 and New Zealand Maori four years later were representative sides. On Tuesday, these Brumbies were an understrength Super XV outfit keen to avenge their predecessors’ narrow defeat 12 years ago and disciplined enough to stick to White’s game plan of hustle and harry at the breakdown and bodies-on-the-line defence for 80 minutes.