Mick Cleary: Five reasons for the Lions to be wary of the Wallabies
JOE SHOW: Head coach Joe Schmidt during an Australia rugby squad media conference at the Amora Hotel in Brisbane. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
The Aussies punch above their weight. They are double World Cup winners. And even if they have only ever won one full Lions series (2001) in the modern era they have caused the tourists no end of bother on all three occasions. Remember, too, that long, long ago, one of their state sides, Queensland, got the better of Carwyn James’ revered 1971 team en route to New Zealand. The British and Irish Lions bring out the best in the Wallabies. It happened when there was disquiet about the granting of full tour status to Australia in 1989 when Bob Dwyer’s Wallabies stunned the British and Irish Lions in the first test in Sydney by winning 30-12. It took a complete about-turn change of tactics, allied to a massive punch-up and a Campo cock-up, for the Lions to prevail in that series. The boot was on the other foot 12 years later with the Wallabies coming off the ropes to sneak the series with a Justin Harrison stolen lineout in the last minutes of the third test. Only in the third test in the 2013 series did the Lions manage to assert their superiority. Andy Farrell’s Lions know that they are in for a rare old tussle. You write off an Aussie side at your peril.
The apprentice meets his master with Andy Farrell hell bent on getting one over on his former boss. It may be six years since Joe Schmidt was in charge but there is still enormous respect for the 59 year old Kiwi and no little trepidation as to what the arch professor of tactics might come up with. Schmidt has long been the Man with a Plan. He is an expert in fine detail and will have applied his forensic mind to the matter and covered all possible eventualities. How could Irish supporters in particular not be worried about what he might come up with? Schmidt was the architect of Irish rugby’s modern resurgence, three Six Nations titles including a Grand Slam and a giddy rise up the rankings. Schmidt took Ireland into uncharted territory and while Farrell has managed to build on that base by loosening the Schmidt strait-jacket, there will be much twiddling of Irish rosary beads that Schmidt does not manage to come up with a surprise strategy to thwart the Lions.
Five games, five wins. The record of the British and Irish Lions in Australia looks pretty good on paper. 211 points scored, only 53 conceded. Lies, damned lies and statistics. The scorelines present a certain picture, one of ease and superiority and self-assuredness. It’s a distorted image, a fool’s prop as any reliance on stats in sport can be. There was one statistical model from last weekend’s game against the AUNZ Invitational XV that had the opposition as leaders in territory and possession, as if these were a mark of dominance. Yet they lost 48-0 and never raised a gallop. The Lions would be deluding themselves if they felt that they are in an unchallengeable good place as a result of these five matches. Far better to take the opening game of the entire tour, against Argentina in Dublin, as a barometer of where they are at. That match also provided insight into the level an international time operate at, the Pumas being fierce and clever at every turn. The Wallabies will be a wholly different ball game to anything faced in recent weeks.
The Wallabies have star quality in their ranks, from much-travelled, heavyweight lock, Will Skelton (not starting first Test), through a scheming, powerhouse back-row trio and on to league convert, Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i, described by former Wallaby centre, Tim Horan, as a player who ‘tackles like a leaguie, leaps like a basketballer and marks like an AFL (Aussie Rules) player.’ Even if the Wallabies might lack the household names of old, an Ella or a Campese or Gregan, they can still muster enough talent to provide a real test for the Lions. Sua’ali’i showed what he has to offer when unveiled on the Wallaby tour last year, a huge presence at re-starts which has not been an area of any conviction for the Lions.
Sport means so much to an Aussie. It is part of a defining national characteristic. Union may be down the sporting pecking order in Australia, trailing in behind the ever-burgeoning Aussie Rules and rugby league but that is all the more reason for it to see a Lions series as an opportunity to grab headlines. The locals don’t tend to give much notice to those who finish second. It’s win or anonymity. This is a big gig for Australian rugby, a 12 year longing to show that they can compete with the best in the world. Rugby obviously means far more to New Zealanders as a nation but Australians share that same chip-on-the-shoulder feeling from the far end of the world, a craving for recognition on the global stage. This series feeds that yearning, a chance to put the northern hemisphere in its place. Justin Harrison, the ex-Brumbies (and Ulster) second-row, expressed the itch Australians feel when speaking to The Times podcast earlier this week. “We are a frontier country that deals with a lot of adversity.”
Lions beware.
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