The Wallaby win in the final game of the British & Irish Lions series was a result that should have been welcomed by more than just Australian supporters. South Africans for a start should be pleased because it brings extra meaning to the two games to be played by the Wallabies in this country.
When the international fixture list was announced, many would have felt the home fixtures looked a bit flat, with the Wallabies, who have been beaten comprehensively on their last few visits here, taking top billing. But after winning in Sydney the Wallabies will arrive with the belief they’ve added substance to talk of a revival, with some tipping them to be in the 2027 World Cup final.
I don’t go along with that, mainly because I think there’s a debate to be had about how good this Lions squad really was. Ellis Park in two weeks time might bring some perspective on both the Lions and the Wallabies.
Of course, it would be good for rugby if Australia were on the rise again. Not enough nations are capable of winning a World Cup as it is, and for Australia, who won the Holy Grail twice in the 1990s, to continue their downward spiral would be damaging for the sport.
The last time the Lions won a series against the Wallabies was in 2013 and two years later the Australians played in a World Cup final at Twickenham against New Zealand. So there is precedent for those who are backing an Aussie revival.
That series, though, was the last one the Lions won, and it is only against the Aussies that they have won a series this century. Which is why even Lions supporters should be pleased that their team didn’t complete a clean sweep and send the UK and Irish rugby scribes into a frenzy of ululation that would have been completely over the top.
The Sydney game was not a dead rubber. The Lions knew they were playing the sixth-ranked team in the world, so at the start of the tour they set themselves the target of making history as the first Lions tourists since 1927 to complete a whitewash. The Lions won 3-0 here in 1974 but there were four games in that series and they were held to a draw in the final Test.
Had they won in Sydney the Lions would have been deified as history makers, which is fair enough, but also quite possibly the best Lions tourists ever, which would not be fair to the Lions squads that went before them. Particularly not the 1971 squad that won in New Zealand and the 1974 team that was loaded with generational players.
Let me quote from a Stuart Barnes column in the UK Sunday Times that probably sums up the feelings of many even in his own country. Barnes was himself a Lion and was pleased they won the series, but wrote, “Deep down I’m glad they didn’t win 3-0. They didn’t play good enough opponents and they didn’t play good enough rugby to be turned by others into some marketed mythology.”
The second Test was decided in dramatic circumstances but the series was underwhelming and the Lions, with coach Andy Farrell making bizarre selection decisions. He played Ellis Genge, who was so good in the first game, off the bench in the games that followed, and backed his son Owen and Bundee Aki ahead of Sione Tuipulotu.
Let’s be honest, given that SA gifted the 1997 series to them with the choice of coach and wayward placekicking, it is only really the Aussies against whom the Lions won series in the modern era.
The 2021 series here was close, but the Boks hadn’t played any significant opponent since the 2019 World Cup final because of Covid-19 and still won.
When the Wallabies play the Boks it will either confirm or deny my gut feeling that the Lions concept is overhyped and overrated.
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