What a richly rewarding few weeks it has been for the British & Irish Lions. Since their training camp in Portugal and pre-departure week in Ireland they have crisscrossed Australia and sampled the contrasting delights of Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne. Winning the series was the squad’s primary objective but they have been actively encouraged to enjoy their time on tour, too.
A Lions expedition is not just about what happens on the field. Henry Pollock, Duhan van der Merwe and Josh van der Flier have been to the Great Barrier Reef while Pierre Schoeman has been writing poetry. Others have headed to the golf course or strolled the beaches of Bondi and Coogee with their families. The squad’s eight games in Australia to date have whizzed past but the players will still return home with plenty of non‑rugby memories.
The best-of-three format has also yielded some absorbing storylines, despite the Lions’ 2-0 advantage heading into the final Test this weekend. How many would have guessed at half-time in the first Test in Brisbane, for example, that the Lions would be 23-5 down after half an hour the following week in Melbourne? Or that the Wallabies could be so transformed in the space of just eight days? It is the beauty of an old-school series.
What happened last Saturday will not necessarily pertain to this week. There will be ebb and flow and, by the end, the players’ strengths and weaknesses will have been more fully revealed. So, too, the coaches’ ability to change the picture. Even in defeat, the Wallabies’ first‑half display was testament to Joe Schmidt’s tactical nous.
Look at the difference that Rob Valetini and Will Skelton made having sat out the first Test. After a quiet game in Brisbane, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii gave everyone a glimpse of why he is so highly rated. The Lions, for their part, stayed calm when it mattered with their half-backs calling the shots while Hugo Keenan, struck down by illness in the early stages of the tour, did brilliantly to deliver the coup de grace.
A tour, in short, has an infinitely more varied, deeper narrative than a standalone Test week. If a northern hemisphere team win a series down south it also has a wider context. Until now the Lions had managed just one series victory since 1997. That gives their achievement here more resonance than, say, a one-off Test involving a team who have only popped in for a week.
Hence the reason why not everyone is turning cartwheels at the idea of the new Nations Championship which is scheduled to kick off next year. Instead of the traditional touring arrangements, the six leading European sides will play the top five sides from the southern hemisphere plus Japan. To use England as an example, they are scheduled to have August games against Fiji, South Africa and Argentina in 2026 and then play November Tests against New Zealand, Australia and Japan.
At least one head coach of a major nation hates the idea. “I don’t like it at all,” he told me this year, citing the extra travel involved for many teams. Maybe if his side wins the Nations Championship final, set for London next year, Doha in 2028 and New York in 2030, he will change his view but, for now, the jury is very definitely out.
The Guardian also understands Fiji’s mooted “home” games next year against England, Wales and Scotland will be played in Europe to ensure more money for the Pacific Island side. That adds up in terms of their longer‑term financial future but kills stone-dead the romantic notion of taking the touring road less travelled. England have not played in Fiji since 1991 and New Zealand have still never played a full-capped international there.
At least there continue to be a few pockets of hope, with South Africa and New Zealand having agreed to resume hosting “proper” tours in each other’s countries. Next year the All Blacks are scheduled to head to South Africa for an eight-game trip including three Tests, marking the 30th anniversary of the last traditional tour between the two nations in 1996 when the All Blacks defeated the Springboks 2-1.
A reciprocal tour is planned in New Zealand in 2030 with both unions clearly keen to replicate the kind of model that continues to be so successful for the Lions. And with the Lions to travel to face the All Blacks in 2029 and, theoretically, South Africa in 2033 there is clearly still financial mileage in touring if the teams involved are sufficiently box office and the games suitably competitive.
Which is another reason why the match last Saturday was significant for Australia. Tim Horan, the great former Wallaby centre, called it “the most important Test match for the Wallabies since the 2015 World Cup final”, not just in terms of the result but the team’s ability to reconnect with the nation. Ultimately Australia did not get the result they wanted but clawed back a good deal of respect.
They now need to do the same again in Sydney to sidestep a dispiriting 3-0 clean sweep. A 2-1 outcome would unquestionably be a better bargaining chip when the time comes to start negotiating over whether the Lions will return to Australia in 2037 as per the existing tour rota.
That is because the other ingredient that makes touring special – besides the off-field fun and camaraderie – is the intensity of the midweek games. It was only in Melbourne in week five that any real matchday jeopardy emerged on this Lions tour, courtesy of the First Nations & Pasifika XV and then the Wallabies. There are plenty who believe France would offer a more compelling fixture list and a spectacular tour experience. Let us all pray, either way, that rugby tours of the future do not become glorified business trips.
