The British & Irish Lions head to Australia soon. And while they’re heavy favourites to take series honours, an ever-improving Australia shouldn’t be written off.
The Joe Schmidt Factor
The wiley old campaigner was part of the Irish revolution and while a lot of the squad that he coached until 2019 have moved on, he still worked with a handful of players who will venture to Australia with the Lions.
Schmidt also knows Lions coach Andy Farell really well with the latter working under Schmidt while he was the Irish head coach. Farell credits a lot of his success to Schmidt’s mentoring and this does have a touch of master versus apprentice to it.
Schmidt has also worked wonders with this Wallabies side over a very short period. Having been left the rubble and ruin following Edde Jones’ ill-fated second tenure at the helm of the Wallabies, Schmidt has built a decent side that bagged wins over Wales, Argentina and England last year while giving the Kiwis and Irish real runs for their money.
Fast Decks and Breakdown Specialists
Another thing going in the Wallabies favour will be the conditions in which the three Tests will be played. While it will be coming into winter by the time the Lions touch down in Australia, we’re still likely to see some quick playing fields which will be similar conditions to the ones the Wallabies players have enjoyed in Super Rugby.
These slick decks tend to favour a quicker game plan and also bring the loose forwards into play. And while the Lions are stacked with loose forward talent, the Wallabies have a number of breakdown specialists who also like to run the ball and get involved in the loose with the likes of Liam Wright, Fraiser McReight and Carlo Tizzano all absolute nuisances at the breakdown.
The Midfield Maestro
The Wallabies are stacked with midfield talent with the Reds duo of Hunter Paisami and Hamish Stewart are ready made pairing while veteran Len Ikitau and Samu Kerevi bring a wealth of experience to proceedings.
While all the aforementioned men are fantastic options, the key for the Wallabies is likely to be League convert Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii. The former Sydney Roosters star was the Wallabies standout player during last year’s end of year tour to Europe playing a key role in their famous last-minute win over England at Twickenham.
He did miss the majority of the Super Rugby campaign with a couple of injuries including a fractured jaw but he should be ready and raring to fire before the Lions get to town. While he did play some of his Super Rugby at fullback, Schmidt needs to play him in the centres for this series as he is such a handful on both attack and defence.
Indecision at Fly-Half
Away from the Wallabies strengths and over to the Lions weakness and the glaring on for me is their fly-half options. I was pretty surprised that none of the Irish tens got into the squad with Farrell opting for Scottish veteran Finn Russell, and English duo of Fin Smith and Marcus Smith.
The intriguing thing here is that all three fly-half options are far from what the Lions took on tour to New Zealand and South Africa with the trio far more attacking than predecessors like Johnny Sexton, Dan Biggar and Owen Farrell. Fin Smith is probably the most conservative of the bunch but he still likes a good old run and naturally wants to give the ball a bit of air. With Jamison Gibson-Park also noted for playing the game at pace and the Lions back trio not featuring too many heavy weights, this could indicate the Lions will have a more open game plan to the one they produced in South Africa which would play into the Wallabies hands.
