Healey says Aussies will use Paulie’s absence as an incentive

Former British and Irish Lion Austin Healey believes Australia will jump on the loss of Paul O’Connell as a means of overturning the first Test loss and take the series to an all-or-nothing third meeting in Sydney.

The former Leicester Tigers and England utility back has considerable experience of the lengths the Australians have gone to in the past to turn the screw on the tourists given the war or words he shared with Wallaby lock Justin Harrison in 2001.

Healey famously described Harrison as a “plank” in a newspaper column after a long-running feud between the pair and his words were deemed to have backfired when the then Brumbies forward stole a last-gasp Lions lineout to seal the series win for the hosts 12 years ago.