{"id":23247,"date":"2025-07-26T09:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T09:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/23247\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T09:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T09:23:10","slug":"second-test-results-updates-latest-rugby-news-what-time-is-kickoff-at-the-mcg-teams-will-skelton-rob-valetini-return-australia-record-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/23247\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Test results, updates, latest rugby news, what time is kickoff at the MCG, teams, Will Skelton, Rob Valetini return Australia, record crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rugby Australia is throwing its biggest body and its most destructive ball carrier at the British and Irish Lions with the recalls of Will Skelton and Rob Valetini in a bid to save the series.<\/p>\n

If that doesn’t work for the Wallabies in the second Test on Saturday, then the following week in Sydney becomes little more than a victory lap for the Lions and their 40,000 touring Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh supporters.<\/p>\n

At 203cm and 140kg, the France-based Skelton certainly adds significant size and weight to a Wallabies pack that was outgunned in the 27-19 loss to the Lions last weekend in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/p>\n

Will Skelton and Rob Valetini during the Australia captain’s run at the MCG.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Valetini brings the extra firepower.<\/p>\n

“You get a lot of confidence when you have two people with their experience and their presence coming into your side,” Wallabies captain and No.8 Harry Wilson said.<\/p>\n

“They’re two real leaders in the group and to have them back, in such a big match, is really exciting for us.”<\/p>\n

Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt spoke about Skelton’s on-field calmness and wealth of experience in Europe being of huge importance to the Australian team when he announced a squad this week that contained three changes to the forward pack, none in the backline and a 6-2 split of forwards and backs on the bench.<\/p>\n

\"Joseph-Aukuso<\/p>\n

Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii faces the media alongside team mate Will Skelton.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Opening salvos<\/p>\n

The Wallabies are expecting another physical contest up front at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where a crowd exceeding 90,000 people is expected and there’s a chance of rain.<\/p>\n

Wilson said his lineup needs to fight fire with fire from the kickoff rather than let the Lions out to a big lead like they did in the series opener, which was 24-5 after 42 minutes.<\/p>\n

The Australians also need to give a young backline, particularly 22-year-old flyhalf Tom Lynagh and 21-year-old centre Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, some front foot ball to generate better attacking opportunities.<\/p>\n

“We want to go out there, we want to oppose ourselves physically, we want to back our skills and we just want to go out and start fast,” Wilson said.<\/p>\n

“The 6-2 bench means more reason to go out there, throw your body around knowing there’s some quality bench players to come and finish.”<\/p>\n

\"British<\/p>\n

British & Irish Lions head coach Andy Farrell speaks to the media.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Pressure on<\/p>\n

Andy Farrell’s 2025 squad is determined to join the Lions greats by winning the series 3-0, regardless of how the coach has tried to downplay that objective.<\/p>\n

“They want to wrap up the series and we want to keep the series alive, so there’s no doubting there’s a lot on the line for both teams,” Wilson said.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of pressure on, and it’s what you love about it.”<\/p>\n

The Lions have won the opening Test in the last two series Down Under \u2014 in 2001 and 2013 \u2014 and lost the second Test in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

In ’01, the Australians won the deciding match for an historic series victory in Sydney.<\/p>\n

The Lions won the third Test in Sydney 12 years ago to reclaim the trophy.<\/p>\n

“We have put ourselves in a good position after the first test, but we know there will be a massive reaction from this Wallaby team,” Farrell said as he announced a Lions starting lineup containing three changes.<\/p>\n

“We will have to be a lot better than we were last week.”<\/p>\n

\"Owen<\/p>\n

Owen Farrell of British & Irish Lions gets involved with Charlie Gamble of First Nations & Pasifika XV.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Owen Farrell, a late inclusion in the squad and making his fourth Lions tour, was added to the bench after leading the team to a win over the First Nations and Pasifika squad on Tuesday in their last midweek game of the tour.<\/p>\n

Ireland midfielder Garry Ringrose was a late exclusion from the second Test after reporting symptoms of concussion, allowing Huw Jones to retain his spot at outside centre in new midfield combination with Bundee Aki.<\/p>\n

England’s Ollie Chessum was drafted in to partner skipper Maro Itoje as a replacement for injured Ireland lock Joe McCarthy, and Andrew Porter replaced Ellis Genge at loosehead, giving the Lions an all-Ireland front row.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby Australia is throwing its biggest body and its most destructive ball carrier at the British and Irish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-23247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}