Schmidt factor gives Australia hope as Lions arrive Down Under
SYDNEY – The British Irish Lions have often set off on tour with confidence, but it is rare that they arrive in the Southern Hemisphere as heavily favoured as they are to beat Australia in their test series in late July and August.
Australian rugby has been in varying stages of crisis for the last decade and the Wallabies, World Cup winners in 1991 and 1999, are currently ranked eighth in the world beneath three of the four nations that contribute to the Lions.
The band of Irish, English, Scottish and Welshmen who arrived in Perth with coach Andy Farrell at the weekend are therefore expected to emulate the tourists of 1989 and 2013 by triumphing Down Under.
The expectations of a one-sided series were so high in 2024 that former England scrumhalf Ben Youngs questioned whether Australia still deserved their place in the quadrennial Lions touring cycle along with South Africa and New Zealand.
His comments came after Australia had been thumped 67-27 by Argentina in the Rugby Championship, but signs that progress was being made under wily coach Joe Schmidt came when the Wallabies beat England 42-37 at Twickenham in November.
When they followed that with a 52-20 win over Wales and got within three points of Ireland in Dublin, Australian hopes soared that the Wallabies would at least be competitive against the Lions.
Schmidt would never wittingly leave a hostage to fortune and has, at best, expressed qualified ambition for his team to be within a few points of the Lions towards the end of the tests.
“Then we’re a chance,” the New Zealander said in April. “But we’ve got to give ourselves that chance by being really good in our performance behaviours.”
Many of the Lions squad are well aware of Schmidt’s quality as a coach
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