2 days ago
Australian teams have not provided one decent opposition for the Lions
The received wisdom was that this would be the truest gauge yet of the British and Irish Lions' Test readiness, a timely collision with a collection of such grizzled internationals that Marika Koroibete and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto brought 89 Wallabies caps between them. And yet so hastily assembled was this AUNZ side, thrown together with only a week's training, that they appeared – on the strength of two early tries where the tourists could almost saunter around the fringes to score – to have neglected even basic defensive drills. All of which begs the awkward question of whether Andy Farrell's players have, after three weeks of criss-crossing the Australian continent from Perth to Brisbane, Sydney to Adelaide, seriously been tested at all.
On the surface, a 48-0 victory brooks no argument. It is the first time the Lions have restricted any opponents to nil since Warren Gatland's team ran up 64 unanswered points against a New South Wales-Queensland country collective 12 years ago. But it also marks the last in a sequence of five Australian warm-up games conspicuously devoid of jeopardy. Traditionally, these itinerant preambles tend to throw up at least one upset: take the Brumbies' 14-12 triumph in 2013, or victories for the Blues and the Highlanders in New Zealand in 2017, or even the 17-13 win for South Africa A in a deserted Cape Town Stadium four years ago. On this occasion, though, the dress rehearsals have felt anything but precarious.
The most persuasive explanation, of course, lies in the structural defects of Australian rugby. When the Lions embarked on their most recent tours of New Zealand and South Africa, they were facing the reigning world champions. Australia, by contrast, have slumped from third in the world 12 years ago to eighth today, with their last World Cup campaign running aground in a 40-6 trouncing by a Wales team who would lose 18 of their next 19 Tests. Ireland, England and Scotland – who, if we suppose that Jac Morgan falls just short of being selected as the Test openside, will comprise the entire starting XV in Brisbane next Saturday – are ranked third, fifth and seventh. The Lions' dominance so far is merely a reflection of a wider imbalance of power.
Still, you wonder if there is a certain kidology at work, too. A simmering subplot has been the reluctance of Joe Schmidt, the head coach of Australia, to release too many Wallabies players back to their clubs, preferring instead to wrap his frontline choices in cotton wool. As such, the Waratahs had to make do without the game-changing athleticism of Joseph Sua'ali'i, while the Brumbies were deprived of the fast-twitch footwork of Len Ikitau. Despite Lions chief executive Ben Calveley demanding the strongest possible opposition at every stage, Schmidt has held firm, arguing that a mass release of his most valuable stars would be 'counter-productive'. That is his prerogative, but the upshot is that the Lions are heading into the Test series without the fullest examination of their credentials.
You wonder, given the latest hiding meted out to the AUNZ scratch team, if the old Lions touring model has had its day. Back in 1971, when the legendary series in New Zealand lasted more than three months, the slow burn through the provinces made sense, with teams such as Waikato and Wellington harbouring the cream of the country's talent. It would be difficult, 54 years on, to make a similar claim about some of the sides bulldozed in Australia. Several have been strategically weakened, while the AUNZ XV were ultimately nothing more than an Antipodean Barbarians, with their peculiar retro kit as ropey as their discipline.
Surely, there has to be a better way. If the teams served up as hors d'oeuvres are not at full strength, why can the Lions not deviate instead to the Pacific islands for the tune-ups? By any standard, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa would offer a more culturally enriching experience and a more useful measure of their Test mettle than a pop-up team created purely to flesh out the tour programme.
So lucrative has the Lions formula become that there is little appetite for tinkering with the traditional rotation through the southern hemisphere. But there are the odd rumblings of revolution. Mike Phillips, a two-tour Lion, has called passionately for a future tour of France to be considered. 'Imagine the hype, packed stadiums, financial boost, and global buzz,' he wrote last week. 'A rugby powerhouse versus the iconic Lions – huge for the sport, fans and growth.'
It is a reminder of how even the most sacred rituals do not remain relevant forever. While the Lions are a magnificent curiosity, they also need to adapt to thrive, and where better to start with some more imaginative scheduling?
Farrell has every reason to be content with his side's 100 per cent record on Australian soil having lost their opening game against Argentina in Dublin. The questionable pedigree of the opposition, however, creates a risk that they are entering their three defining games not so much battle-hardened as undercooked.
