It was Finn Russell who said it first. In the passageway beneath the MCG, in the wake of the Lions securing the series against the Wallabies last Saturday, the fly-half insisted that the job was not yet done in Australia and would only be done if the Lions turned the 2-0 from Melbourne into 3-0 in Sydney.
A clean sweep is what they came here for and a clean sweep is what they need to stand a chance of being remembered in the way they wish to be remembered. The Lions need to finish with a flourish. Listening to them this past week, they know that better than anybody.
For weeks now, one Lion after another has spoken about their target being a landslide and that kind of rhetoric has only intensified since Melbourne.
Andy Farrell was asked the other day if the bravado from his players sat well with him. “I never think you should shy away from shooting for the stars because you might end up on the moon,” he said.
“I don’t think you should shy away from challenging each other and if you don’t get there, then hopefully it’s somewhere near. It sets the mentality in my mind of what delivering means. What’s there to be shy at? Players, coaches, staff, everyone, Lions fans, want to win every game. You can’t be frightened of that.”
So here we are. The Lions are favourites to win their third Test in a row (probably not the case since they toured Argentina in 1927 and won 4-0) and, if they achieve it, it will be the first time they’ve won three on the spin in 51 years.
By their own estimation they have not had to produce a complete performance to get this far. Fifty minutes here and fifty minutes there has been enough.
After winning the first Test comfortably they said they were going to have to be considerably better if they were going to win the second. In many areas they were worse (the Wallabies were much improved) and they still won.
To their credit, of course, but you don’t get to be great Lions if you’re falling over the winning line against moderate opponents.
“While the first two games have been great because we got two wins, there’s still a feeling that we haven’t put it together in a way we know that we can,” said captain Maro Itoje. “That’s the exciting thing for us – we want to chase down the performance we have been searching for.”
Jack Conan, the Irish number eight, had his own particular take on the Lions still not having produced what they think they’re capable of.
“A lot of us weren’t at the races at all, but we stuck in there,” Conan said in the wake of the dramatic Melbourne win. “We were not at our best by any measure, but physically the lads dug in unbelievably well. It was disappointing how we played, but we played for 80 minutes.”
