It didn’t seem possible that the 2025 Test series between the Wallabies and the British & Irish Lions could achieve the dual ambition of reviving Australian rugby and also seeing Andy Farrell’s squad earn the mantle of greatness. But after the scale of the Lions’ 29-26 win in the second Test in front of a record attendance of 90,307 in the magnificent MCG maybe, just maybe, it can still do both.
For sure, the debate as to the legality or otherwise of Jac Morgan’s clear-out on Carlo Tizzano will never be resolved in a satisfactory manner. That, alas, is a recurring issue with rugby and, probably, all contact sports.
Seemingly everyone’s view of this is predicated on one’s country of birth. The diametrically opposed opinions were typified by former Wallabies captain Michael Hooper and former Lions captain Martin Johnson on Stan Sport’s coverage afterwards.
Thrilling second Test saves Lions tour from ignominy
One ventures that the views would have been equally polarised and largely reversed had the shoe been on the other foot, and a match-winning Wallabies try had been approved after a similar clear-out by Tizzano on Morgan.
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It is understandable that Joe Schmidt made an issue of it. His team played so well and victory would have been one of the greatest achievements of his garlanded coaching career. This Wallabies team will never have the opportunity to win a series against the Lions again.
He may even have a point when agreeing that the decision was influenced by it being in the last minute. Then again, would the decision even have been reviewed had it not been in the 80th minute?
The more one looks at it, the more one has to think Tizzano’s reaction is a little theatrical. Rugby would be going down a dangerous route if Andrea Piardi, who had a fine game and must take some of the credit for it being a belter of a Test match, had buckled to the pressure and ruled out the try. As Johnson simply put it: “If you penalise that, you penalise every ruck.”
The Wallabies’ sense of grievance, stoked by Schmidt, rumbled on into their Monday briefing with Nick Frost and Max Jorgensen, when it was referred to as “the incident”, as if a grave crime had been committed. Perhaps, too, as well as providing back-page headlines, the controversy can provide Australian rugby with a feeling of injustice to fuel the widespread acknowledgement that last Saturday the Wallabies produced their best performance in years, as Hooper commented afterwards.
[ Owen Doyle: Jac Morgan’s clear out of Carlo Tizzano was not obvious foul playOpens in new window ]
Coming after the disastrous Eddie Jones reign, Saturday’s display could mark the start of a rebirth for Australian rugby.
Quite why so many people were inclined to rush to judgment and were so dismissive of this Lions tour and this Wallabies side is curious. This is especially true in Ireland, given the transformative influence Schmidt had on Irish rugby and the inclusion of a record nine players in the Lions starting XV – and 11 in the match-day squad – despite the absence of Joe McCarthy, Garry Ringrose and Mack Hansen.
Andy Farrell had tweaked his replacements cleverly and, as Maro Itoje admitted afterwards, “the bench won it for us”. In this, Ronan Kelleher and James Ryan were as influential as any of them, the latter injecting intensity to the Lions’ carrying, defence and breakdown work. As well as the last, vital carry before Morgan’s clear-out, Ryan had three in the 13-phase attack which culminated in Tadhg Beirne scoring.
In the heel of the hunt, the Lions won last Saturday’s thriller by five tries to three, and three Irish players were among the scorers – Dan Sheehan, Beirne and, of course, Hugo Keenan. Along with Itoje, Tom Curry and Finn Russell, Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong, Beirne, Jack Conan and Jamison Gibson-Park have been key figures in both Test victories.
This is Irish rugby’s peak Lions year, by a distance, and deservedly so. Having 18 players and a hatload of coaches and backroom staff who have been part of the five-week, nine-match tour can only be beneficial for Ireland’s return here for the 2027 World Cup.
The sniping by some in the UK is understandable, if at odds with the stark evidence of the last four years. However, any hint of it is mystifying in Ireland and one can’t help but feel it is fostered, at least in part, by just not being here. By contrast, it is seemingly impossible to find a single former player or travelling supporter who is not enjoying this Australian adventure. Not one.
Dismissive forecasts of 40-point or 50-point winning margins last week for the Lions were all the more puzzling when they came from former players who played for Schmidt. Not only has history taught us that Schmidt can have that effect on teams, but whatever it is about them, the second Test in a Lions series – or in the majority of three-match series – is often at odds with what happened a week before.
Broadcast in 130 countries and played out in front a record crowd for a rugby union match in Australia and for a Lions Test, the Stan Sport commentator Nick McArdle described it as “a Test match for the ages”. That shouldn’t be overlooked amid the post-match kerfuffle about “the incident”.
That said, it should give the Wallabies an even greater desire to salvage a win and some sort of redemption, while Farrell and his players have made no secret of their desire to win a series 3-0.
As it is, this is the first time since 1997 that a Lions team has won a series with a game to play. However, that could be trumped in Sydney next weekend when the Lions look to complete the first unbeaten tour since the 1974 trip to South Africa — regarded as the greatest rugby tour in history - when they won the first three Tests and drew the fourth.
The last time the Lions had a clean sweep of a multigame series was on their one extended tour to Argentina in 1924, when winning it 4-0, and they haven’t won a series 3-0 in Australia since 1904.
This achievement now looks more worthy, as well as more attainable, after last Saturday’s epic.
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