The Lions will have beers flowing but champagne on hold after failing to whitewash Australia in the third Test with a 22-12 defeat – it is a mini sweetener for the Wallabies but neither team will feel satisfied with the series outcome, writes NIK SIMON
By the time the sun returns and the players are relaxing on Bondi Beach on Monday afternoon, the Lions will look back on this tour with a feeling of pride. By then, the lightning storms will have passed.
History will remember the class of 2025 as series winners but there will forever be a nagging feeling that they did not finish the job. It was a good outcome, two Tests to one, but not one that will propel them into the pantheon of greatness.
They returned to their hotel in Circular Quay to celebrate with family in friends, beers flowing but champagne corks not popping. ‘Crap,’ was how Tadhg Beirne described the final performance, describing his bittersweet emotions after being named player of the series.
It was not the red-wash the tourists dreamt of; that washed away into Sydney’s drains on a wet and wild night.
When it rains here, it pours. The downfall was so heavy that the touch lines were washed off the pitch before kick-off, with the referee asking for them to be re-painted. The pitch was like a slip-and-slide and it was the Wallabies who adapted better.
Will Skelton roamed around like an alpha sea-lion, wet-through, squashing anyone that got in his way. If he had been available to play in the first Test, this series may well have had an entirely different outcome.
The Lions of 2025 are series winners but will feel a sense of not finishing off the job
Their series victory of 2-1 came against a comparatively poor Australia side
In the driving rain of Sydney, the Lions came up short of entering the pantheon of greatness
The players overlooked by Joe Schmidt in the opening games stepped up. Taniela Tupou beasted the scrum, Dylan Pietsch thundered into collisions and Nic White buzzed around like a thirsty mosquito, nibbling at his victims before they had a chance to swat him. It begged the question: did the Wallaby coach get his selections wrong?
We will never know. Andy Farrell did not have an answer when asked if his own players lacked emotional intensity after wrapping up the series after the second Test. They celebrated hard after their last-minute victory in Melbourne and here they looked weary.
They were pushed around. Maro Itoje failed an early HIA, leaving the tourists without their skipper, who still becomes the first Englishman to captain the Lions to a series victory since Martin Johnson. Tommy Freeman was next to go, looking like he had just been through 12 rounds in the ring with Tyson Fury, blood streaming out of his nose. And James Ryan followed, knocked out through the occupational hazard of trying to tackle Skelton.
From start to finish, there was a needle in Sydney that this series has lacked. The one-sided provincial matches lacked jeopardy and the bulk of the Lions’ travels around Australia have felt more like a cakewalk.
The victory was a mini sweetener for the Australians, who were desperate to avoid losing every match on home soil. Although neither team will feel entirely satisfied with the series outcome. The Wallabies wanted the win, the Lions wanted the whitewash.
As far as future Lions tours here are concerned, 80,312 was the key number. It was another sold-out crowd, with 222,848 tickets sold across the three Tests alone. Valuable Australian dollars into the bank accounts.
The Lions will be back here, no doubt, despite the clamour for the tour to be taken to new territories. Money talks. Tadhg Furlong, the prop, has already proposed a monthly kitty be set up among the squad, making monthly contributions to fund a reunion trip to Australia when the Lions return in 12 years’ time.
Young Henry Pollock could well be part of that squad and perhaps the Lions would have benefitted from his energy on the pitch.
Will Skelton roamed like an alpha sea-lion – this series may have had a different outcome if he had started the first Test
Australia boss Joe Schmidt will be left wondering if he got his selection calls wrong this year
This was another sold-out crowd 80,312; a total tour crowd of 222,848 matters greatly
Hindsight will say that Andy Farrell should have freshened up his team – they looked like they already had an eye on Bondi Beach!
Despite the glory, the series ends in frustration – neither side will be truly content
Hindsight will say that Farrell should have freshened up his team, because at times looked like they already had one eye on Bondi Beach. He said his players ‘got bored of doing the right thing’, guilty of overplaying in the wet conditions.
It took eight minutes for the Wallabies to take the lead and the Lions never got back. The hosts passed short and carried hard. They grubbered the ball at Hugo Keenan down the blindside, carrying the lightweight full-back over the try-line for an attacking scrum. Freeman bit on and Joseph Suaalii, leaving space for Dylan Pietsch to score down the left wing.
Bundee Aki was manhandled and dropped balls. Jamison Gibson-Park fizzed out passes that were too fast for even Finn Russell to catch in the conditions. There was a a 38-minute break in the second half when the players were ordered off the pitch due to an incoming lightning storm.
The Lions relaxed on beanbags in the changing room, even playing on their phones, before performance manager David Nucifora sheepishly threw a towel over the changing room camera, which could well lead to Sky Sports requesting some form of financial rebate.
And when they returned to the pitch, the Lions were guilty of overplaying. Owen Farrell shovelled a pass, with Aki overrunning Keenan. Max Jorgensen scooped up the loose ball and ran free for a 15-0 lead.
Jac Morgan responded with a try but the Wallabies’ lead was unassailable. With Ronan Kelleher in the sin-bin, Tate McDermott scored from the back of a ruck. It was only thanks to Will Stuart’s consolation try in the final play that the Lions ended the series on the right side of the aggregate scoreline, which finished at 68-67.
You suspect it will leave a sense of frustration for Andy Farrell, although he will be singing along to Don’t Look Back in Anger when he goes to watch Oasis in Dublin next weekend. And, off the back of a good-but-not-great series victory, he will bite the hands off the Lions executives when they ask him to lead the side back to New Zealand in four years’ time.
