Unless the Wallabies were playing possum, Lions may be in for a feast
Lolesio could never quite succeed in one of Australian rugby's most pointless pursuits – finding a saviour at No.10 – and judging by Nathan Cleary's latest State of Origin series, you can put a line through that name as well.
Lolesio's degree of familiarity with Joe Schmidt's structured style of play is going to be hard to recreate, especially for a player coming in from outside the group.
James O'Connor, the 35-year-old new man in the squad, will offer some hard-won experience, but he started one game for the Crusaders this year, and they got pumped 45-29 by Moana Pasifika in Christchurch. There are no easy answers.
But what can be said with a far higher degree of certainty is that if the Wallabies defend as passively as they did against Fiji last week, they could have prime Dan Carter in their No.10 jersey, and this underwhelming British and Irish Lions side would still beat them.
Against Fiji, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and Len Ikitau probably had more running metres going sideways or backpedalling than they did going forwards.
Granted, there are a million more pleasant ways of spending a Sunday afternoon than tackling Fiji No.12 Josua Tuisova, whose bossing of Suaalii emphasised the physical gap between Test rugby and the NRL, but if that was the line speed the Wallabies backs bring to the first test against the Lions in Brisbane on Saturday, they are in enormous trouble.
It was, in fact, clearly the worst defensive display by any Australian team (compared to the Force, Reds, Waratahs and Brumbies) since the Lions landed. There was so much room for Tuisova to move into that it made you wonder if the Wallabies were playing possum in a cunning plan to lull the Lions into a false sense of security.
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