‘Glorious Lions needed this battle to reveal another side of themselves’

finally . Drama, intrigue, annoyance, and edge. A Test match that will live on long after the rest of this 2025 tour is forgotten.

Australia’s outstanding performance was widely anticipated but had no other offerings. The British and Irish Lions faced off, demonstrating their grit and class to match what they displayed in their respective pockets.

Quite simply, wow!

“Wow” ! in front of a 90, 000-person crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground when the Wallabies took a 23-15 lead and shook the ground beneath our feet.

“Wow” ! at the end of the first half, by Tom Curry and Huw Jones, the Lions saved themselves from the floor, and boy, were they on the floor. The flow from one end to the other was breathtaking in the first half, a six-try epic that made you feel like a crick in the neck.

Where were these Wallabies last week? They didn’t, however, have Will Skelton or Rob Valetini last week. Both sides were irate, forcing the tourists to take the lead, and giving them penalty after penalty, giving the Lions yard upon yard.

The misery for Australia was that Valetini, having been injured for weeks, could only deliver 40 breathless minutes and more disappointment came in the loss early in the second half of the towering Skelton.

However, The Lions.

On this tour, we have waited patiently for their eyes to be tested, patiently for their eyes to be revealed.

They won the final game 243-2, which is a sign of respectable excellence, from 23-5 down. We have bemoaned the lack of drama on this trip, but it was all saved up for the MCG, layers and layers of it, even to the last breath.

The Lions continued to advance after trailing 26-24. To win the series, every Lions supporter must have anticipated a drop goal, a milked penalty, a three-pointer.

But where was Finn Russell? Not in the pocket. Russell doesn’t attempt to drop goals. Never has. Owen Farrell, where were you? Not in the position to become the hero, but on the pitch.

They went for the try and Hugo Keenan got it. Of course, the television match official’s heart-stopper and Jac Morgan’s clearance examination earlier in the move were both scrutinized. Nothing in it. Correct decision, try. victoria . . .

And so the overview must be written, but not in a way we thought we would be writing it. We were prepared to discuss another Wallabies defeat and another straightforward Lions victory.

In 28 years, they are only the third Lions squad in 51 years, and they are only the second to go 2-0 up in a series.

There is still a little trouble there right now. Australia, fortunate to be considered the world’s sixth-best team, played above themselves in Melbourne. After a first Test that was desperately passive and a monster showing in their rugby fans, they finally found something.

The real Wallabies are who? It is still hard to know, but they were outstanding here and have something to build on in the near future. They will all beg themselves for allowing the first Test to pass.

The fact is that nine of the team’s previous 13 games have been lost by the Wallabies. Context here amid the Lions euphoria. Compare Australia to South Africa and New Zealand as world champions four years ago when the Lions played them and Australia as world champions on the 2017 tour as well as Australia as world number three and soon-to-be World Cup finalists when the Lions have previously visited these regions.

Australia have much work to do. The Lions ? It’s all about celebrating their biggest victory, which many of them have ever won, before moving on to Sydney to bring it home with a 3-0 lead.

A few among their number talked about 3-0 before they ever made it 1-0. They discussed how important it is to have one of the greatest Lions sides. They won’t be, of course, but they did a good job and merit praise.

A shot at winning three Tests in a row for the first time since 1974? Now you can bet on them.

The Lions’ victory in the bearpit battle will be more meaningfully remembered as the result of our monthlong long awaited. Two processions would not have put them in the pantheon. Here, they demonstrated their worth.

Overall, the tour had less of the controversy and edge of the more recent ones, and as a result, it was largely flat. The MCG changed that somewhat.

This time it has been a month of players and coaches tickling each other’s tummies. Farrell’s arrival was as edgy as it could be. So there is no repeat of Warren Gatland and Rassie Erasmus tearing apart each other in 2021, no verbal conflict like Gatland and Steve Hansen in 2017, no citation like James Horwill, the Wallabies’ captain, in 2013, or Bakkies Botha and Schalk Burger in 2009.

No outrage. No “speargate” like the 2005 incident that left Brian O’Driscoll in the dust, no disgrace like the Mpumlanga bruiser’s stamp that put an end to the great Doddie Weir’s run on in 1997, no newspaper columns like those of Matt Dawson and Austin Healey that shook things up in 2001, no disgrace like the one that left Brian O’Driscoll in the lead.

Of course, we don’t want all of that, but when it does, it changes the mood, piques people’s interest, pushes people out of their comfort zones, makes things more unpredictable and exciting, and gives tour participants talking points and a beating heart. We got a glimpse at the MCG. A stunning view

Up until Saturday, no verbal grenades have been thrown at Andy Farrell’s boys. The Australian public have been polite in a way that the Kiwis and the South Africans would never be. Former friends from their time with Ireland, Schutt and Farrell have never said a word inappropriate. More fudge than grudge, really.

There was a passion and a thunder in that gargantuan crowd, though. As James Slipper, Jake Gordon, and Tom Wright hit the Lions with three tries in a matter of minutes and put them on their backsides, the stirring turned into an explosion.

With the series now done and the prospect of a 3-0 clean sweep on the cards in Sydney on Saturday, the debate about Australia’s place on the Lions ‘ rota may reignite if the Lions do go on and make it three.

Should they be eliminated? Should French clubs be dangling carrots in front of them to see if they want to join the rota, perhaps in place of Australia or even something else altogether?

The poor state of Wallaby rugby, Saturday’s emotional response apart, is only one section of this. Commerce is the other component. As they say, “follow the money.” The cities and stadiums in Australia are extraordinary in scale and number and the fans love coming here. The red army has fought back as usual.

The Lions’ biggest audience to date is the MCG, which they have never performed in front of. They played in front of just over 90,000 people on Saturday. The second-biggest was in 1955 in Johannesburg. Sydney had the third and fourth biggest in 2001 and 2013 respectively.

Lions fans, both domestics, are fans of a tour of Australia, and it does not bother them in any way that they are watching a series of easy victories. It is not like Australia have suddenly become average. When Lions fans spent a lot of money on expensive travel packages, they were average. Regardless of the competitions’ level of competition, they were coming.

The 2017 tour of New Zealand had an average crowd of 34, 327 across 10 games. The final (normal, as there is no Covid) tour of South Africa took place in 2009, with a 34, 793-person crowd typical. This tour averaged 40 and 364 games before the MCG’s crowds arrived.

Put it another way – when a great New Zealand team took the Lions to the cleaners in 2005, the combined attendance for the first two Tests was less than the total number at the MCG. More money can be made from Australia’s stadiums than from any other tour because it can expand. The Lions will always be here as long as that is the case. It’s the economy, stupid.

And it’s 2-0 to the Lions, which is what we had anticipated in one respect but not in another.