By early evening on Friday in Australia the poll in the Sydney Morning Herald had recorded 23,585 votes on the outcome of the series between the Wallabies and the British and Irish Lions.
A Wallabies 3-0 whitewash got a dismal 5%. A 2-1 victory for the home nation sat at 26%. A 2-1 Lions success story attracted 34% of the vote, but sitting at the top, as the most likely outcome in the eyes of the contributors, was a Lions clean sweep – 3-0 getting 36% backing.
“I don’t know how much respect we’ve been shown,” said Wallaby coach and Andy Farrell mentor, Joe Schmidt, the other day. Well, there’s more of it.
These are unprecedented times. Every bookmaker, from Brisbane to Ballydehob, makes the Lions favourites, not just for Saturday’s first Test at the Suncorp Stadium, where they are traditionally strong, but across the span of the series.
When was the last time they were so hotly fancied on a tour such as this? That’s to say, the main body of the tour as opposed to the era when the Lions used Australia for warm-up Tests ahead of the big stuff against South and New Zealand? One hundred years and more. Maybe even as far back as the 1800s when the Lions wore red, white and blue stripes and the Wallabies pale blue.
On Saturday, the Lions will face the world number six side, promoted from world number eight on the back of Argentina dropping down after losing to England and Scotland falling after losing to Fiji.
Australia are missing two of their heaviest hitters – their best player, Rob Valetini, and their hulking lock, Will Skelton. Their fly-half Tom Lynagh has never started a Test before. One of their back rows is making his debut. One of their wings has played once since the end of March and the other has played once since the end of May.
Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, the talented Wallaby centre, is described as the man who can save Australian rugby. Suaalii is 21 and has played five times for the Wallabies, one of them being a humbling loss to Scotland last autumn when he came out on the wrong side of a collision with Sione Tuipulotu and had to go off injured. There’s not a lot of love lost there. The pair will face each other again at the Suncorp.
As a collective, the Wallabies have had one game – a scratchy win over Fiji – since last November. They’re not so much undercooked as frozen solid. Somehow, Schmidt has to thaw them out in time for Saturday.
Do they have a hope? This is a good Lions squad – extremely creative at their best and capable of brutal physicality up front through some seriously hardy ball-carriers. There’s a power in this Lions team that’s going to be hard to contain.
