Gavan Casey

THE 40-MINUTE PAUSE for lightning brought with it the usual questions that fill such space in a match broadcast.

‘Who will this delay suit more?’

‘How will the players deal with an interruption like this?

‘Does it mean anything that Australia are back on the field ahead of the resumption while the Lions are still in the changing room?’

While these questions are virtually impossible to answer, it would be a fair read of the third Test that it meant more to the Wallabies than it did to the Lions, totally understandably.

In retrospect, Andy Farrell may question his selection: a handful of players with a greater point to prove than the series winners might have stirred something other than a lame Lions performance.

From Joe Schmidt’s perspective, though, the questions will lead with ‘what if’.

What if Rob Valetini had been available for the the full series? What if Will Skelton was up to full speed? What if Harry Potter had lasted for all of the second Test? What if I hadn’t so readily discarded Taniela Tupou? What if we got a fair crack of the whip from the officials?

The former Ireland head coach won’t be happy that Dan Sheehan’s clear-out on Tom Lynagh, for example, which led to the Aussie out-half’s withdrawal following a HIA, went unpunished. But to zoom out from the third Test specifically and unpack the series as a whole, Schmidt has reason to be seriously proud of his players.

In the sands of time, only the Lions’ 2-1 win will really matter, but from the 43rd minute of the first Test onwards, Schmidt’s Wallabies were arguably the better side.

Indeed, their trajectory might one day soon see to it that the Lions’ 2025 series victory is painted in a different complexion.

Before this tour, the consensus would have been that Ireland, England, or perhaps even Scotland, could have won a summer series in Australia, not to mind a collection of the best players from those countries and Wales. Such bullishness would be rarer now.

Ahead of this third Test, the Lions laid it plain that they were chasing history, a first 3-0 series sweep since a tour of Argentina 98 years ago. Easily forgotten is the motivation to avoid becoming a part of history, and the Wallabies’ cause — as well as their players — simply proved stronger than those of the Lions in Sydney.

Farrell will be disappointed but hardly dismayed. That his side fell short of their 3-0 target will rankle but one day in the distant future, beyond the documentaries and podcasts and after-dinner speaking, rugby fans will see that he was a series-winning head coach. More intriguing may be the ‘New Zealand tour of 2029′ category on his Wikipedia page.

And while the Lions’ overall achievement in Australia may have been unremarkable (the tourists have won eight out of 10 total series Down Under), the feeling of futility that pervaded rugby discourse on either side of the first Test was obliterated by the spectacle that was the second meeting in Melbourne.

If it gave us nothing else, the 2025 tour gave us that epic at the MSG, perhaps the greatest Test match since the World Cup quarter-finals weekend of 2023, and certainly the best Lions Test since the second game in South Africa in 2009. And surely a game like Melbourne is the point of these things, or at least it’s the trade-off for the naked commercialism that fuels the Lions as a concept in the modern era. Most rugby fans still consider it a fair deal.

That second Test and the summer as a whole have highlighted an undeniable truth, which is that rugby union needs a strong Australia. The sport is just more fun for the rest of us when the Wallabies are good, and when the Australian public is engaged with its national team.

Should the series catapult Schmidt’s side back to the top table in time for the 2027 World Cup — and that idea will be tested away to South Africa in the Rugby Championship in two weeks’ time — then it was worthwhile for that alone.

This series was less the Lions’ Everest, more a hike up the Sugar Loaf. The view is still pretty nice from the top.

And yet the Wallabies were only a stroke of fortune or two short of scaling a far mightier height.

As this year’s tour begins to fade out of view, another difficult question can be put to rest: yes, the Lions should absolutely tour Australia again in 2037.