Australian rugby looks for pride and soul in the mud and the rain of a Lions dead rubber

Australia Broadcast Center

a day ago

Before the final Test of the Lions tour a cynic might suggest it doesn't matter how this chapter in Australian rugby ends, given the ultimate result was decided a week ago, but when the end is all that's left it matters a great deal.
The easy cliché for a dead rubber is to say the side down 2-0 is playing for pride but Australian rugby could use a little pride and the Wallabies fought hard for it in their 22-12 win on Saturday night.
As the rain fell so heavy on Stadium Australia the place rattled as though it had an old tin roof, the atmosphere before the match felt like the final day of school before the summer holidays.
The last battle wasn't over but the war had been won and you could sense just how long a tour it's been for everyone.
The wind and the rain kept the red and gold masses huddled close. A few Lions fans made a show of wearing shorts in defiance of the conditions, walking around with chests out and fine spirits and given the series was wrapped up, it's hard to begrudge them a little peacocking.
"Is this what you Aussies call cold? Is this what you call winter?" one asked with a beer in each hand and two more half-finished ones in his jacket pockets, as another man strode past one of the precinct's few pubs blasting a tune on the bagpipes.
The stakes on the field still felt high to the last, even accounting for the Lions' earlier victories in Brisbane and Perth, and there were heroes to be found all through the mud and the grime.
In his final Test match Nic White marshalled and fought and chipped like Snidely Whiplash if he knew how to box kick and the retiring halfback deserved the standing ovation he received on exit.
Taniela Tupou, whose best football has been so hard to come by in recent times, played with a spirit that was clear from the moment the tears fell from his eyes during the national anthem and Joseph-Aukuso Sua'ali'i, of whom so much is always expected and demanded, had his best game of the series.
Will Skelton was as powerful as the lightning that forced the delay in the second half and man of the match Tom Hooper would have fought a starving dog for the last bone if that's what it took to win.
It was not the highest-quality Test of the series, but it was the meanest and the Lions were not poor, but they weren't as sharp as they'd been in Brisbane and Melbourne.
That's to be expected — as dearly as they wanted the clean-sweep, that motivation pales in comparison to the Wallabies' fear of being swept which, properly channelled, is as powerful a force as exists in sport.
But to the Wallabies' credit they didn't win on desperation alone — they were smarter than they were in the first two Tests, and steadier with the lead.
There's a slight bitter aftertaste to the win, because if Australia played like that the whole way through — and especially if they had Skelton for all three Tests — so many things could have been different but what's already happened can't change and all the Wallabies have now is the future.
What that future looks like is harder to parse. This win will not save Australian rugby, just like the series defeat will not condemn it.
Australian rugby's glory days were never going to come again based on the result of one game, or one series or one moment of brilliance or brutality. The game's weaknesses are too complex and deep-seated to vanish overnight.
But by the same token, losing one game, or one series, even one as big as this Lions tour has felt, will never be enough to condemn the sport.
Even after the difficult decade it's endured there are too many diehards, too much love for the game at a grassroots and community level for that to happen and that's come to the fore at all three Tests where the crowd has been thick with local club jerseys on children and adults alike.
What this series has done is make rugby feel prominent and important in Australia's crowded sporting scene again. It has made the game vital in a way it hasn't been in years and the sense of occasion has been enormous.
People were invested. Pubs and stadiums were filled, as were column word counts and television segments and podcast hours.
It's reactivated old fans, who remember the glorious times, and in a world addicted to nostalgia that's a powerful force.
It might inspire a few new ones as well, which can still happen in defeat — just ask Max Jorgensen, one of rugby's brightest stars, who might not have been here at all had he not attended the 2015 World Cup final as an 11-year-old.
This series and the Wallabies' prospects and performances felt important in a way that cut through the malaise that has too often enveloped the game in recent years.
The magnitude of the events over the past three weeks, the sense of panache, would make any young athlete dream of being a part of a series like this.
But eventually, the confetti is swept away and the fans wander off into the night in search of one last beer together before it's all over and the wait starts for 2037 and the Stadium Australia precinct grows cold and quiet again.
A 2-1 loss can have plenty of upside, but it's still a 2-1 loss and pride alone can't run a game forever. There are silver linings to be found, not manna from heaven — but silver can still take you a long way.
Australian rugby needed that win in Sydney but not as badly as it needed this as a whole experience to both fill the coffers and win a few hearts and minds.
It's done plenty of the former, perhaps some of the latter and while the Lions series can't be a miracle cure it can be a shot in the arm.
That sense of vitality that has been so present through this tour must be found again wherever it can be. A Lions tour serves it up on a platter but forging it anew is far harder.
How that can be done remains to be seen but winning and looking good doing it in a way that felt true and real and red-blooded, will go a long way towards that goal.
You can't manufacture this kind of prestige, but you can make the most of what you've got until you get a little bit more and this game was proof that the Wallabies have plenty about them.
With a Rugby Championship and a spring tour to come this year and a home World Cup on the horizon, there will be no shortage of chances to use it.
Australian rugby needs more of the soul it found in Sydney amid the rain and the blood and the joy.
To do that it needs to keep some of the spotlight the Wallabies have found. It won't be as bright, not until the World Cup, but it can still light the way.
A dead rubber is only a dead rubber, but this one showed there was talent in this side and great spirit, enough to be dangerous and dashing and exciting, enough to feel a future filled with brilliant tomorrows is possible.
Given the doom and gloom that's enveloped the sport for so long, that's worth plenty and while this Test was the end of something, it can be the start of something else.