This is not a good Australia team – but a series win must be savoured

Telegraph

a day ago

There is no getting away from the fact that Australia are not the strongest side that the British and Irish Lions have faced. Irrespective of that, winning a Test series is precious and absolutely must be savoured.
It is such a rare achievement that stays with you for the rest of your life. This would only be the second series victory for the Lions since we went to South Africa in 1997. There have been only three series wins in half a century since 1974.
To look at it the other way, it remains a huge event for the host nation. For most Australian players involved this time, it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. As such, the Lions holds immense respect from within and from the outside. It can be easy for people to forget both sides of that.
As a Lions player, especially in a Test match, you are part of a team that is the best that Britain and Ireland can produce. Selection is a personal thing, because you are being told that, as an individual, you have something different about you. Winning in that jersey is something extremely special.
Another aspect to consider is that, with Covid around the tour of South Africa in 2021, this is the first trip in eight years to enjoy what has become integral over the professional era, which is the travelling spectators. Because of them, the Lions bring something unique to the Test arena both on the field and off it. It is a phenomenon, and this 2025 crop have been able to be part of that again.
Tadhg Furlong, Maro Itoje and others have all had tastes of three tours now; the one to New Zealand in 2017 when the Test series was drawn and then the 2-1 loss to the Springboks four years ago. They will know what winning means, and how you need to be right on your mettle to get over the line.
In 2001, the Lions were taken to a decider by Australia after winning the first Test and the losing the second. In 2013, they came through in that third Test as we did in a closer match in 1989.
Another mark of the prestige that the Lions possess is how they have a chance to play in front of more than 95,000 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Not too many rugby union teams get that privilege and the Wallabies are certain to be better this weekend with Will Skelton and Rob Valetini beefing up their pack.
The First Nations and Pasifika gave Joe Schmidt a bit of a sighter on Tuesday night, too. They showed what is possible with togetherness and tenacity, when there is real meaning to a fixture against the Lions.
Fine, this Australia team are not as good as famous Wallabies teams by a long shot. They are ranked sixth in the world. But they have good players who are coming together to represent their country in the biggest game of their careers.
In 1997, I used the image of the wounded Springbok returning in frenzy and the Lions will meet a full-blooded, desperate and totally committed Wallabies side. I had it from the other perspective in 2009 after we lost the series opener in South Africa; if you have lost that first one, the second Test is everything. Everything.
Players always return from a Lions tour with fond personal memories because you gel with former rivals and see a different side of them off the field as well as on it. You learn things that change you, both as a player and a person.
Collectively, as a Lions group, you develop a chemistry that evolves over the tour and can by its nature never again be replicated. You will meet up again for reunions, but you are only an on-field entity for a very limited time. The 2025 Lions only have a couple of weeks left together.
All they can do is win the Test series. The ultimate, for every Lions squad on every tour, is to achieve that and it does not change. I do not think it particularly matters if it is 3-0 or 2-1. Winning, whatever the scoreline, makes the experience that bit stronger.
Australia, on Saturday, will be ultra committed to not losing. The intensity will reach another level, I am sure. What the Lions have to do is to leave their mark, to impress their collective character on the field.
What they will remember years from now is a feeling. Some of their actions and the passages of play within the game will fade in their minds over time.
The feeling of going well on a field together as a team and winning for the Lions is something you can always look back on. You never forget it.