In the carefully curated world of the current British and Irish Lions in Australia, the 48-year-old Canberra Stadium is a place that brings you swiftly back to earth.
At the end of the Lions’ 12-point victory over a spirited, but weakened ACT Brumbies team, the stadium’s tiny away dressingroom was squeezed to capacity with the players bellowing out their version of Rocking all over the World, which pays homage to their “Captain Maro”.
After the celebrations, Maro Itoje walked into the makeshift tiny room that was used to squeeze the hordes of travelling press. The lock gave a wry smile, saying “this is old school”. It was hard to argue, nearly half a century of deep heat liniment was overpowering in the bowels of the old ground.
Does Andy Farrell know his best Lions XV yet?
Coach Andy Farrell also seemed to enjoy the change of scene from Australia’s bigger cities of Brisbane, Perth and Sydney. In Australia, Farrell’s history of a rugby league great is not forgotten and he was welcomed to Canberra by NRL team the Raiders as a visiting hero before the game’s biggest showpiece, State of Origin.
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The Lions are billed as rugby’s last great adventure, but for the players, off the field, it is hard to differentiate the cultural experience of being in Australia from being with their respective national teams. The only difference is different roommates.
In Perth, the Lions trained on the immaculate fields of Hale School, which has a rich history of producing AFL players. The schoolchildren were curious, but were not allowed near the touring team before or after they trained, until the 1st XV were eventually granted a brief audience with the Lions near the end of the week. The players and Farrell are all engaging and patient with fans to a fault, but their time with them is limited.
Similarly, tradition would have it that after facing the Waratahs last Saturday, the Lions would visit the grave of the late Robert Seddon. Seddon, the captain of the first Lions team, drowned while rowing on the Hunter river in 1888. With the Wallabies playing last Sunday against Fiji in Newcastle, it was the perfect time to mark this shared history, as then-captain Sam Warburton did in 2013. Ultimately, it was left to tour manager Ieuan Evans and chief executive Ben Calveley to represent the Lions, without a single player in attendance.
The demands of the players are fast and furious in Australia. They train, do intense classroom sessions, travel hours between each city to play warm-up games, leaving little time to understand the country they are playing in or explore its diverse cities and towns.
In theory, the Lions are a portal into a more innocent time, but that has sadly long passed. On past tours, players were adopted by small New Zealand towns or stayed in remote game reserves with families in South Africa. In Australia in 2001, young players such as Brian O’Driscoll inspired a new generation. In 2025, between corporate and content responsibilities, the players mostly experience the different qualities of flat whites served in Australia’s coffee shops, with the odd excursion to the golf course or a rugby league game squeezed in.
Farrell and his players understand that extracurricular activities are important, but all they will be judged on is their performance in the Test series against the Wallabies. They are not here as evangelicals to spread the word of rugby union in a country largely fixated on rugby league and Aussie Rules. They are here strictly for business.
They have done their job in the warm-up games so far, finding tougher tests against motivated Waratahs and Brumbies teams, still smarting from the idea that they are inferior opposition without their frontline Wallabies. Both Australian sides attacked the Lions’ breakdown, which remains a small area of concern, set against Wallabies’ coach Joe Schmidt’s far bigger worries of replacing his injured outhalf Noah Lolesio.
On Saturday, the Lions are in Adelaide, a city that has no professional rugby and is known primarily for its churches and being the place that Australian cricket legend Don Bradman spent most of his adult life. The Lions will face a mixed Australian and New Zealand selection. It is a complete unknown quantity not only for the Lions but also for their opponents.
There are some strong representatives from both countries, including All Blacks Shannon Frizzle, David Havili and Hoskins Sotutu. They are joined by Wallabies Pete Samu, Brandon Paenga-Amosa and Marika Koroibete. The team is led by future Wallabies coach Les Kiss and assisted by former All Blacks coach Ian Foster.
The squad is missing star power in playmakers Richie Mo’unga and James O’Connor. Both men were keen to play, but injury and insurance issues ultimately kept them out of the showpiece fixture at Adelaide Oval. It is a Barbarians fixture in all but name, with Lions such as Hugo Keenan looking to make a late dash to the Test series against a side that are completely unfamiliar with one another.
The road is finally slowly turning towards the Test series and after the Wallabies struggled to beat Fiji last Sunday, the Australian public are not expecting Schmidt to conjure miracles. However, the Brumbies and Waratahs have shown the Lions have their flaws and the former Ireland coach will be pulling all-nighters for the next 10 days to try to pull off the greatest win of his coaching career so far.
