A mere 4.5 kilometres separates the team hotels of Australia and the British and Irish Lions in Sydney, yet the sides are operating in completely different worlds.
Hugo Keenan’s stunning 79th-minute try in the second Test in Melbourne didn’t just win the series for the Lions, it shattered the spirit in the Wallabies that coach Joe Schmidt had painstakingly built since taking over last March after salvaging the wreckage of a team from the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
The Lions’ hotel in the city is packed with fans decked out in replica kits milling around reception, which is festooned with red balloons, hoping to meet their heroes when they step out for a flat white. The players and coaches are noticeably more relaxed, having secured the series. The ends have justified the means for Lions Inc as a ruthless high-performance unit and the players have gelled into an outstanding team and forged lasting connections off the field.
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The Wallabies’ hotel is far quieter as players walk around keeping a far lower profile. The team’s base is located in a beautiful part of Sydney, but the only slight hint that the national team might be staying there comes from the concierges wearing gold and green scarves. The emotional toll that the second Test defeat has taken on the players is noticeable. Normally so engaging, they remain polite but are unable to hide the disappointment that lingers over them like a wet cloud.
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The Wallabies had spent so long as a national punching bag that few people gave them any chance of drawing the series against a Lions side that have quickly developed synergy and speed under Andy Farrell. In the first Test, the Wallabies had been far too passive, but the return of their hulking ball carriers Rob Valetini and Will Skelton in Melbourne made them a completely different and ferocious opponent.
A Schmidt video session is never an easy prospect for any player and some Wallabies may have struggled to process how they blew an 18-point lead or failed to close out the Lions’ desperate last attack that was finished so brilliantly by Keenan.
Australian flanker Carlo Tizzano has been left out of the Wallabies’ squad for the final Test after the final ruck incident at the MCG with Lions player Jac Morgan led to a sore neck and a torrent of online abuse. The moment has lingered into the build-up to the final Test far too long, obscuring what was a captivating game of rugby. Australia need to move on, but are finding it difficult to do so.
In their preparations for what is now a dead rubber, the Wallabies are also without the outstanding Valetini, who aggravated his calf injury in the second Test. In his one half of rugby where he wasn’t fully fit, the Brumbies flanker was Australia’s best player by a distance.
Australian rugby is left to hopelessly wonder what would have happened across this series with Valetini fully fit and firing. Now the Wallabies’are going to face the Lions in Sydney without their best piece of artillery. Simply, put, he is irreplaceable.
Ronan O’Gara described Skelton as his finest signing for La Rochelle, which initially puzzled some in Australia who had never quite seen the best of the giant lock in national colours. In the second Test, he was outstanding, providing the Wallabies with an enforcer to complement the elegant athleticism of Nick Frost. At its best, their partnership is a faint ode to the former Springbok secondrowers Bakkies Botha and Victor Matfield. Grunt and guile working seamlessly together.
The Lions are desperate to secure a 3-0 win against the Wallabies and are hot favourites to do so. The team are completely unshackled from any pressure and will play with freedom in front of a sold-out Sydney Olympic Stadium. The Wallabies are staring down a long fixtures list that includes the Springboks in South Africa in a fortnight’s time, followed by Argentina and the All Blacks. Life does not get any easier from here, but a famous win in the third Test would infuse desperately needed hope.
As an organisation, the Lions will not be remembered with much affection in this country; they have not been easy guests to host. Their players are different. They have been outstanding ambassadors for the game of rugby and will look to continue to be in their final game of this tour, where they have the chance to write themselves into the history books.
