The logistics involved in touring Australia with the British & Irish Lions have changed slightly over the years. On the first Lions tour in 1888 the 22 selected players were away from home for 249 days and, in addition to 35 games of rugby, were also required to play 19 games of what we now know as Australian rules football.
It took 46 days by boat to reach their destination and attempts to hone their skills on the SS Kaikoura had to be abandoned after all the squad’s rugby balls disappeared over the side. The ship, as chronicled in the beautifully updated official history of the Lions, even had 300 stoats and weasels on board as part of a plan to deal with the rabbit population in New Zealand, their first port of call, where they played nine matches.
The tour was also touched with tragedy when the captain, Robert Seddon, drowned in a boating accident in Maitland, New Zealand after capsizing his outrigger and being unable to swim clear because his feet were strapped to the footrest. All things considered, the Lions did astonishingly well to leave Australia undefeated in their 16 rugby games, having even won nine of the 19 contests they played under Victorian rules.
What price 137 years later – and off the back of a sobering loss to Argentina in Dublin – of an unbeaten nine-game tour of Australia by a 38-man squad commanded by head coach Andy Farrell? The Lions are being quoted at 1/3 to win the three-Test series but those odds ignore the less-cosy reality. The Wallabies are regrouping, defeated England and Wales away in the autumn and, unless a black jersey and a silver fern are involved, can be awkward opponents at home.
True, the Lions emerged victorious from the last series in Australia in 2013 courtesy of a 41-16 win in the third and final Test, but one snapshot from the morning of that decisive contest will always endure. Just around the corner from our hotel in downtown Sydney the Lions’ forwards’ coach, Graham Rowntree, alone and deep in thought, could be seen walking down the hill towards the harbour.
All those months of planning, all that sweat and toil, would shortly be distilled into 80 minutes over which he had strictly limited control. Even those closest to the dressing room can never entirely predict how a Lions tour will ultimately pan out.
The Argentina setback was a further reminder that a juicy target hangs around every Lion’s neck whenever they take the field. Momentum can shift from week to week and injuries can also strike at the most inconvenient moments. Who can forget, for example, the stray elbow that invalided Richard Hill out of the second Test in Melbourne in 2001 and swung a tight series decisively towards the Wallabies?
In Australia, too, just wait for the inevitable screeching from certain local media outlets should the Lions put a paw wrong in the early state games, leave a couple of busted bodies in their wake or deign to be anything other than the tamest of pussycats. Farrell’s outstanding rugby league pedigree may qualify him for some grudging respect but never underestimate the widespread desire down under to put upstart Poms in their rightful place.
On the plus side the 2025 tourists have a coach who relishes such pressure environments. Farrell’s ‘Take them boys to the hurt arena’ address on the eve of the aforementioned Sydney decider is now part of Lions legend, not least because that expedition remains the Lions’ only series triumph since 1997. Successfully uniting the pride of the four home unions on the opposite side of the world is not always as simple – or gloriously romantic – as it sounds.
Chemistry is clearly vital but, as Friday proved, it can be elusive with limited lead-in time available.
The Wallabies also have a useful amount of inside knowledge in the form of head coach, Joe Schmidt, once Ireland’s all-seeing guru, and his assistant Geoff Parling, a Lion himself back in 2013. There is a logical school of thought that Johnny Sexton was included on Farrell’s coaching ticket specifically because of his famously close relationship with Schmidt and, consequently, his instinctive sense of WWJD – What Would Joe Do? – at any given moment.
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That said the massed ranks of Irish players on the Lions teamsheet is equally helpful for Schmidt. The latter will sense, probably rightly, that the Lions will seek to embrace the Irish tactical model, rather than looking to conjure a miraculous new all-singing, all-dancing gameplan out of thin antipodean air. He will also look at the visiting team sheet and conclude that if the Wallabies can prevent Jamison Gibson-Park and Finn Russell from setting the tactical tone their task will become 10 times easier.
Watching Rob Valetini and Len Ikitau playing for the Brumbies in Super Rugby was also to be reminded that Schmidt’s Wallabies are capable of packing a punch themselves. The mountainous Will Skelton is back from La Rochelle and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, who made such an eye-catching start to his union Test career at the end of last year, has already demonstrated an ability to soar above the common herd.
Do the Lions possess a similar calibre of match-winner? Yes and no. In Maro Itoje, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Beirne, Tom Curry, Russell and Tommy Freeman they have their own genuine World XV candidates, but significant front-five injuries could hurt them and Australia could have more out-and-out gas in their back three. Where the touring side are seriously competitive, though, is on the flanks and, potentially, in midfield where Sione Tuipulotu could prove a prickly thistle in the side of his homeland.
Wildcard-wise they also have the exciting Henry Pollock, the 20-year-old English bolter with the raw talent and larrikin confidence of a young Shane Warne. While Friday night’s game underlined the fact he is still learning, the young flanker does not lack for chutzpah. If anyone is metaphorically going to bowl one outside leg stump and hit the top of off, as Jason Robinson so memorably did in the opening minutes of the first Test at the Gabba in 2001, it is probably him.
It should all make for a more stimulating series than was the case in South Africa four years ago. That 2021 expedition was a grim-faced, Covid-ruined, crowd-free test of everyone’s resolve during which the Lions mustered just two tries in the best-of-three series, both from driving mauls. Farrell’s finest will need to be more ruthless this time around.
