The opening win in Brisbane could easily have been by a wider margin than the ultimate 27-19 scoreline, so there is plenty to work on, but set against the background of a satisfying realisation that a range of individual players and collective elements of the Lions’ game were bang on the mark.
And the same thing happened when the series was lost after a winning start on their most recent tour to South Africa in 2021.
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In the hosts’ favour, star forwards Rob Valetini and Will Skelton have been declared fit to play after missing the first Test, and head coach Joe Schmidt can hang on to the Wallabies winning the last 38 minutes of the Brisbane game by 14-3 as a gee-up for the second meeting.
Be alert to a faster Australian start
Australia may not take as long to get into their stride as they did in Brisbane, when they were a little too cute with trick plays in the first half, and did themselves down with dropped passes and poor handling – all under immense pressure and line speed from Tom Curry and co in the power-packed Lions line-up, of course.
The Aussies went more direct in the second half, and by the end they had seven visits to the 22 to the Lions’ eight, while substitute scrum-half Tate McDermott earned a possible promotion this week with a sharp try and five carries, as he got his team-mates in motion, including an injection of pace for Carlo Tizzano’s second-half try.
Reach the same emotional pitch
Tom Curry justified his selection with a huge performance (Photo: Getty)Lions head coach Andy Farrell rightly praised Curry and Tadhg Beirne as “big-match” players and while there had been plenty of conjecture over tight calls for selection, no one was seriously doubting their quality – just whether what we had seen on the pitch in the mostly half-baked warm-up matches was cause for concern.
Thankfully, Curry’s workrate and link play in the wide channels, and Beirne’s all-court skills – plus other good signs like the clever pull-back passes by Tadhg Furlong – were in good order, and the task now is to hit that same peak of readiness second time around.
He made 23 tackles in Brisbane and may need a similar return this week.
If there was doubt over his world-class status – of which more in a moment – it was mainly due to the injury toll he has taken in the past two years, missing almost all of the season straight after the 2023 World Cup, and being substituted during the first half four times in his 23 starts for Sale Sharks and England this season.
The PERFECT start to the second half from the Lions pic.twitter.com/gvrZ5BpjBF
— Sky Sports Rugby Union (@SkySportsRugby) July 19, 2025One theory is they knew the win was assured and were honing their defence.
If McCarthy is out for the second Test, the Lions could start with Chessum and put Ireland’s James Ryan or Scotland’s Scott Cummings on the bench, or make another permutation out of those three.
George, the mighty hooker summoned here from England’s tour to Argentina last week, may even have a shot at the Test bench, while Jac Morgan, Josh van der Flier or Henry Pollock will all fancy bringing their differing types of energy.
Punish Australia from close-range line-outs
We are so accustomed to teams scoring easy tries from these situations but the Lions have been iffy at it, all the way from the Argentina match before the tour.
They may be able to win anyway, without a convincing catch-and-drive, but it might help.
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As former Wallaby centre Morgan Turinui put it on Stan Sport here: “You’ve owned the air [apart from the Max Jorgensen try for Australia], you’ve owned the ground, you’ve owned the contacts.”
The scrum penalties offered the Wallabies entries into the Lions’ 22 when they were struggling to find any other way in, so scrum coach John Fogarty will scrutinise that area.
‘World-class’ within reach for the Lions? Or a phrase not worth using?
Curry post-match in Brisbane spoke a little curtly to the press, without explaining why, but it may have been he felt his place had been subject to unreasonable speculation.
“I don’t know what ‘world-class’ is, it’s such a cliched thing,” he replied. “The thing is to win – you’ve got to win. I don’t really care what label you put on it, you just have to win.”
On the other hand, Gibson-Park was outside on the pitch being interviewed for TV at the same time, and saying this about fly-half Russell: “Yeah, look, he’s world-class, isn’t he? He makes my job easy, and everyone either side of him. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with him, and hopefully another couple of weeks to get better.”
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