In his latest column, Wallabies legend David Campese reflects on the Test series between the British & Irish Lions and Australia and doesn’t hold back on the tourists.
Australia sign off in style
Well, there you have it. Finally something to celebrate in Wallaby rugby and I take my hat off to the physicality and fortitude of the men who saw Australia home in the Sydney rain.
To a man, it was about beating the Lions in that physical contest, and I’d go as far as to say they achieved that, from one to 23 – a remarkable effort.
As much as I want to see attacking and intuitive footy, you can’t do that without the ball, and the possession numbers in Australia’s favour – some 66%, told you everything you need to know about how to win in the modern era. One statistic that caught my eye was that the Wallabies became the first side since 1966 to score three tries in each Test, and I think that the dominance that our centres achieved, together with more gas in the backline than our opponents, was the reason behind that.
Australia with Will Skelton, Taniela Tupou, Tom Hooper and Bobby Valetini are a completely different proposition than without them. So tell me, why the hell did it take so long to get them playing? Skelton was believed by insiders to be fit for Test one, but Joe Schmidt never quite trusts the man, despite the benefits he brings. Sure, he has a limited shelf life and the conditions played into his hand in terms of stamina, but every time he plays against James Ryan he absolutely terrorises the bloke and that happened once again.
I also would like to sing out the praises of Nick Frost. He’s the future – only 25 – and once Maro Itoje went off with concussion on Saturday, so Frost dismantled Ryan and the Lions lineout.
Obviously the architect was the brilliant Nic White – but then we always knew what a high quality player he is, especially in those types of conditions. He’s been a great asset to Australia and it was fantastic to see him going out on his own terms, with a brilliant wet weather performance.
It’s hard to know how this Lions tour will be judged. At times, I feel that the hype was far greater than the reality. It was all a little manufactured, perhaps a little twee.
There was no real moments that came from within from the tourists – they were, at times, a microwave meal version of the Lions over and above the banquet feasts we saw in years such as 1989, 1997 and 2009.
Ex-All Black: This B&I Lions team would have got a ‘bloody hiding’ from Springboks and New Zealand
It seemed as if there was a need to force the narrative of legacy, of the history, rather than making the history itself through moments and performances. The tours I referenced – the moments happened organically – they were real, they didn’t need marketing spin and mic drop statements to underline their impact – and I feel this tour tried far too hard in that respect.
I also feel that Andy Farrell at times treated this as an Irish development tour. There’s no way that the likes of Bundee Aki, James Lowe, Andrew Porter, James Ryan and Jack Conan were the best players in their position during the build-up and series. Never forget, whilst these guys have had some success in friendly Tests and so on, they’ve achieved absolutely nothing in terms of the big silverware in Test rugby – the World Cup – and there’s a reason for that – they’re average players. I go back to my point about Ryan – Skelton owns him every time he faces him.
We’ve seen that for La Rochelle time and time again. Yet Scott Cummings was the most consistent lock on tour and played out of his socks – where on earth was the logic in that selection? There is none – and the same could be said for Conan who made about a third of the metres of Ben Earl on tour, and certainly Porter, who was inexplicably selected over one of the most outstanding players on tour, Ellis Genge.
When the Lions backline had Aki, Farrell, Freeman and Kinghorn in their three-quarter line, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It’s the slowest back division I think I’ve ever seen – you could time their runs with a bloody calendar, they were that slow. I cannot understand why, given the resources of four nations, Farrell couldn’t find anything more than four medium pacers to lead an attack that should be bristling pace and gas.
The bottom line is that the best of four nations beat the seventh ranked side in the world by one point on aggregate. Had a couple of decisions gone the Wallabies way, then this may have been worse for the Lions – so if the tour is deemed successful on those metrics, there’s a few not being entirely honest with themselves over their performance.
In summary
I am a big supporter of the Lions concept, but when was the last truly great Lions tour? 2021 had a high standard of Test matches, but Covid removed so much from it and had it been a fully supported tour, I think we’d look back on it with greater favour. But you have to go back to 2009 to see the jeopardy and integrity that I expect to see from a series.
Does it need reinvigorating? It’s hard to say – it hardly fits into the global calendar these days and as tempting as a French tour might sound, would it really create the offering that the Lions need? I am not so sure.
Perhaps I’m being negative – the game has changed and it’s now a big commercial venture. I can’t praise the travelling supporters highly enough – they were fantastic and they filled Australian bars and streets with their sea of red. But if I were them, in the cold light of day, I’d look back and think perhaps I was short-changed from this tour, a party that clearly had ulterior motives around Irish development and one that almost completely removed one quarter of national support as far as the wonderful Welsh go.
Yes, on paper it was a success, but as far as I am concerned, that’s the very same paper that’s covering the cracks in both the on-field performance and the Farrell legacy itself.
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