The looming showdown between the Melbourne-born Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu and the Wallabies’ prized rugby league recruit Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was an immediate focus of Australian analysis after the British & Irish Lions squad was announced.
The 38 players named by Andy Farrell, led by the England captain, Maro Itoje, and featuring two Australians in Tuipulotu and the winger Mack Hansen, were recognised as clear favourites for the three-match Test series starting in July. But most commentators agreed the improving Wallabies should not fear the Lions, especially if they can stay competitive at the breakdown.
The former Wallabies inside-centre Tim Horan, now a broadcaster, backed the call to make Itoje captain. “You’ve got to be first picked in every single Test match for the Lions, so there’s probably about five or six players [would would be], and he’s one of those.”
The Sydney Morning Herald rugby columnist Paul Cully said the Lions were “firm favourites” and it was the right call for Farrell to rely on 13 English players alongside 15 from Ireland, the recent standard-bearers in European rugby under the Lions’ head coach.
“The earlier prospect of an underwhelming Lions squad was based on the premise that Ireland had plateaued, and while that is arguably still true it did not factor in an England rise,” he said. “But that is what has happened, both late in the Six Nations and through Northampton’s exploits in European club rugby. [Henry] Pollock, Fin Smith, [Tommy] Freeman, and England’s hugely improved scrum work must all be recognised.”
The only area of the field where Cully assessed the Wallabies enjoyed an advantage was among loose forwards, “given the presence of the Rob Valetini and the injury-enforced absence of Ireland No 8 Caelan Doris”. The Lions were given the advantage in every other area except midfielders, where the Wallabies Len Ikitau, and Hunter Paisami are tipped to match the tourists.
Tuipulotu – who played for Australia Under-20s before switching allegiances to Scotland – will be one of the storylines of the tour, especially given the physical duel between him and Suaalii in a Test in November. Iain Payten noted in the Sydney Morning Herald that Tuipulotu and Hansen became the seventh and eighth Australian-raised players to be selected as Lions, and said “the stage has been set for a feisty rematch” between the naturalised Scotsman and Suaalii.
Tuipulotu revealed on the Kick Offs and Kick Ons podcast this week he has been advised to stop publicly discussing Suaalii by the Wallabies analyst Eoin Toolan, whom he knows through working together at the now-defunct Melbourne Rebels. “He’s told me to stop talking on these podcasts about Joey [Suaalii], because he says he’s raring to go. I don’t want to put any targets on my back from big Joey.”
Payten also wrote that the omission of Owen Farrell will be warmly received in Australia. “Many Wallabies fans will have been pleased to see no Owen Farrell on the team sheet after a decade of menacing the men in the gold, by means fair and foul,” he said.
Sam Bruce writing on ESPN said the absence of Farrell means “there is no fear factor” in the squad. “This is not a vintage Lions group, at least compared with the two most recent touring parties to visit Australia in 2001 and 2013,” he said. “It is a squad to be respected, but certainly one not to be feared.”
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Harry Jones said on the Roar that it looked as if the squad was selected in the anticipation that the series “will turn on the vagaries of the breakdown more than set piece”. “Grunt and length in the second row must come from his captain, Maro Itoje, and big Scott Cummings; guile and set piece excellence from veteran Leinsterman James Ryan,” he said.
Jones posited the squad was chosen with the Wallabies’ strengths and weaknesses in mind. “This team is not selected in a vacuum; Joe Schmidt’s possible moves are preemptively considered, and he is more constrained by depth,” he said.
Schmidt said it was a “really strong” Lions squad. “I’d probably say predictable and powerful, good strength in depth,” he said. “I think they’re going to try to play with plenty of pace, plenty of phases and plenty of options.”
The Wallabies will name a squad after the Super Rugby Pacific final in late June for a Test against Fiji on 6 July. The squad for the three-Test Lions series will be named the following week.
