In a unique twist of fate, the 2025 Lions are playing to save the game in Australia. For the Lions to play an exciting, expansive, courageous game, to inspire lovers of the game in Oz, is more vital for the long-term existence of rugby in Australia than how the Wallabies respond.
When the 2025 Lions stepped off the plane in Perth and on to Australian soil for the first time, they were 3,844km from Australia’s financial capital, Sydney. That’s more than a three-day nonstop drive away.
To put that into northern hemisphere proportions, driving to Moscow from Dublin is a mere hop, step and jump of 3,498km.
Tom Court - Ireland's accidental Lion
While most of us have far more motivation to go to Sydney than Moscow, it is worth remembering that Australia is smaller than the United States, but not by much. Ireland would fit inside Western Australian alone, about 30 times. It’s a big country. And most of it no longer cares about the Wallabies, who were once Australia’s team. So, Australian rugby desperately needs this Lions tour.
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Close to the top of a long list of self-harming decisions made by past leaders of Rugby Australia was to cut the Western Force from the Super Rugby competition in 2017. With a vibrant local club competition sitting below the Force and a large rugby community, reinforced by tens of thousands of South African and Zimbabwean migrants, the axing of the Force caught a disbelieving Australian rugby public completely off guard.
Perth is a boom town at the centre of a mining industry that is pumping cash into the city on the banks of the Swan river. The mining billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forest stepped in and took control of the Force, supporting them until they were eventually returned to Super Rugby in 2021. Frustratingly, the wasted years have been hard for the Force to overcome.
The Lions match represents one of the franchise’s biggest days since they were formed in 2006. In front of more than 40,000 fans, the Force players are going to give their all as the rugby world watches on.
The extended Wallabies squad will also be watching from their base in Newcastle, 180km north of Sydney, where they will play Fiji next week. Only a few of the 36 players in the Wallabies squad will be released to play for the Super franchises against the Lions in the lead-up to games.
Joe Schmidt understands that to upset the Lions, he needs every player injury-free. While that has understandably drawn much criticism in Lions HQ, be crystal clear that the Wallabies have a plan that they believe can succeed in ambushing Andy Farrell’s side, so they will be giving the tourists absolutely nothing before the Tests.
The brilliant performance of the understrength Pumas at Lansdowne Road last Friday was motivated by another bout of disrespectful pre-game talk from the northern hemisphere rugby community.
In recent seasons, the Pumas have defeated Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Why a Lions team, dominated by players from a mediocre English team, who lost to the Wallabies last November, provided any evidence for the rugby media to speak so disrespectfully of the Pumas before the match was beyond my comprehension.
The fact that bookies have the Lions as favourites for the series does not mean that they are an overwhelmingly superior team when compared with the Wallabies. As the Lions’ social media marketing campaign reaches new levels of biased spin, what is more galling is that TV commentary continues to suggest to its audience that the combination of four traditional rugby nations playing against one solitary country somehow makes the Lions brave underdogs.
Despite all of these failings, Australian rugby needs the great tradition of the Lions more than at any time in its history because the Lions are wonderfully unique. For the next few weeks, the Lions will dominate Australia’s sporting media landscape, forcing AFL and rugby league off the back page.
The Lions is a concept that should be celebrated, honoured and cherished. The legendary Lions teams of the past created this enormous legacy by playing exquisite rugby.
JPR Williams’s 45-metre drop goal against New Zealand in the fourth Test in 1971 remains one of the game’s most astonishing feats of skill under the greatest pressure sport can produce. The incredible achievements of the 1974 and 1997 Lions tours to South Africa did all their talking by their actions.
We should all note that in the ocean of media content foaming from the Lions’ marketing department, none of the disgraceful behaviour from their 2021 tour of South Africa has made the cut. The game plans and off-field actions from both sets of management on that tour remain a blight on rugby’s soul.
If the behaviours of the 2021 Lions are repeated on this tour, Australian rugby may be irreparably damaged.
The most uplifting aspect of last weekend’s match at the Aviva was the attacking mindset that Farrell has placed in his players. Thankfully, the signs that the Lions are attempting to play Ireland’s attacking, high-tempo, short-passing, running game seem positive.
The creative running rugby that Farrell coaches is vital because the legendary Lions jerseys also carries with it a grave responsibility. One of the most precious missions of every Lions team is to inspire the rugby communities at home and in the country they are touring.
The Lions teams captained by Willie John McBride in 1974 and by Martin Johnson in 1997 inspired the rugby world along every step of their journey because of how they played.
A vibrant and captivating three-Test contest that captures the hearts of the host nation will go a long way to reviving the game in Australia. As AFL and Rugby League watch on, codes with little or no international aspects to their game, a great Lions series can return the Wallabies to their rightful place in the hearts of Australia’s sporting lovers.
