Australian rugby’s incendiary attitude towards nationality needs extinguishing

Wallabies’ great pleasure in focusing on where a Lions player was born is an inflammatory device masked as banter.

Western Force lock Darcy Swain and Lions winger Mack Hansen after the match. Pic: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

So there we were in the bowels of Optus Stadium in Perth on Saturday night. The post-game media mixed zone is not always the natural home of relaxed, honest repartee, but Sione Tuipulotu is a friendly guy and the British & Irish Lions had just won their opening tour game in Australia. It was a chance for a couple of ritual inquiries and a spot of gentle breeze-shooting.

Aside from anything else, it was good to see Tuipulotu smiling. He had missed the entire Six Nations through injury, initially putting his tour participation in doubt. It must have been a particularly tough period given he was Scotland’s captain back in the autumn and also grew up in Melbourne. To say he fancied going on this trip would be an understatement.