Comment: Wallabies ‘turn up the niggle’ to bully the British and Irish Lions and deny Andy Farrell’s men legendary status
Wallabies and British and Irish Lions scrap in third Test, and Dylan Pietsch celebrating first try.
They bounced up and down on the stage as captain Maro Itoje raised the trophy aloft with his right arm, flames shot high into the night sky and silver ticker tape rained down on the series winners.
The British and Lions had achieved their primary goal, yet the smiles were forced. The idea had been to save their best for last. To go down as the best of the best, post a 100 per cent record not achieved by the men in red for almost a century.
They still return home as the first Lions series winners since 2013 and the first in the professional era to return to a country and triumph again, but on a night rich in drama both on the field and in the skies above, Andy Farrell’s charges were well beaten.
A scoreline more emphatic than than a 3-2 try count suggests provided redemption for the Wallabies and, frankly, all of Australian rugby. Derided in bars, in newsprint and across the airwaves, this was some reaction.
Nic White, playing his 73rd and final international before retirement, was the catalyst at scrum-half. Will Skelton the smiling assassin who bullied the tourists throughout. If the rugby gods laid on the lightning, Skelton brought the thunder.
It is only right to first salute that feat, given how deflated the Wallabies had been after coughing up a 23-5 lead in Melbourne. They go to South Africa next for back-to-back games against the world champions. Their morale simply could not have withstood a whitewash.
Fail to become Lions legends
The Lions have been splendid ambassadors for British and Irish rugby, wonderfully led by Farrell. They beat Australia’s four Super Rugby teams by an average of 27.5 points and, to borrow from the boss, they had the time of their lives.
But to be seated at the top table of Lions greatness they needed this win. To be spoken of in the same breath as the 1971 and 1974 tours, to emulate the unbeaten trips of 1891 and 1927, they had to put away these Wallabies.
What unfolded before 83,000 supporters came as a surprise to many, but surely not to this group. They had seen the hollow look in their opponents eyes in Melbourne, the look on the face of Harry Wilson as he fought to make himself heard above celebrating Lions players next door during his obligatory post-match press conference at the MCG.
They had heard Matt Williams, the Aussie-born former Scotland coach, blast the “disrespect” shown to Australian rugby by Lions fans and pundits in questioning whether his country any longer deserves to be visited by the best of Britain and Ireland.
They must have known that with every word of criticism, disrespectful or otherwise, the hackles on every self-respecting Aussie would be raised; the resolve to ram the insults back from whence they came, would grow and grow.
If they didn’t, if they’d missed any or all of that, the reminders were not long in coming. The Wallabies took to the field with fire in their bellies and a body language that screamed we’ll do, or we’ll die trying.
They struck quickly through the pumped-up Dylan Pietsch, given an inch of space by sublime footwork from Joseph Suaalii. And once ahead they turned up the niggle. White was the ringmaster, Skelton the enforcer.
The mind went back to 1997 and how South Africa, the then world champions, responded to losing the series in two Tests to the Lions. The desperation they brought to the third Test in Johannesburg, the focus that gave goal kicker Jannie de Beer.
We thought, too, of 2009, also at Ellis Park, and how a 2-0 series lead blunted the edge of that generation of Springboks, who were never in the contest against a Lions side refusing to have any part in a series whitewash.
Wallabies ‘cloak of defiance’
Inside Accor Stadium, Australia wore that cloak of defiance. They bossed the breakdown and unsettled the Lions at every turn. Their scrum, transformed by the presence of Taniela Tupou – where on earth has he been all series? – went forward all evening.
Above all, though, they never stopped scrapping. Figuratively and literally. Every time a Lion looked up there was a Wallaby in his face. Sometimes it was legal, frequently it blurred the line between what is acceptable and what tends to interest the TMO.
The tourists did not like it, of course they didn’t. But they have had things their own way on this trip. This had been a long time coming. A timely reminder that Australia, for all the rival sporting attractions, retains the heart of a serious rugby nation.
The Lions will point to the loss to HIAs, before half-time, of captain Itoje and Tommy Freeman. To James Ryan being knocked out cold three minutes after half-time. To the lightning break which allowed precious time for Skelton and Tupou to recharge and extend their involvement in the contest.
Ultimately, however, there is no doubting the Wallabies’ right to the victory. They went into the 38-minute delay the stronger and maintained that focus on their return.
“Congratulations to Australia, they thoroughly deserved to win,” said Farrell, magnanimously. “They played the conditions better than us. We overplayed at times.
“We are disappointed but we should be unbelievably proud of what we’ve achieved. How we got the job done in that type of theatre [MCG] is something that will live for us forever.
“It’s been the time of our lives. The best eight weeks of our lives.”