'Good' won't cut it for Sexton, Lions must be 'great' to beat Wallabies

Irish Examiner

18-07-2025

It is 31 years ago since Andy Farrell the player, raided Brisbane with his mighty Wigan Warriors and left Suncorp Stadium for Lancashire with a World Club Challenge Final victory over the Queensland city's premier Rugby League club, the Broncos.
What the 13-man code's archetypal 'Man of Steel' award winner would give to stage a similar success in 2025, as head coach of the British & Irish Lions against an Australia side being written off by many as rank outsiders on home soil, despite the presence of Farrell's old boss Joe Schmidt at the helm and a wrecking ball centre partnership of Len Ikitau and Joseph Suaalii.
That bookmakers' odds were an immediate red flag to Farrell as he discussed Saturday's first Test back at Suncorp.
'I haven't played against many Australian sides that, as you guys have pointed out to me, are underdogs,' the Lions boss said. 'I'm sure they'll want to prove a point in terms of that type of thing.'
Farrell bumped into an old Broncos sparring partner, Gorden 'Raging Bull' Tallis on Thursday as he took a stroll through Brisbane, and their 20-minute conversation underlined there was no such thing as an Aussie underdog.
"I actually saw him in the street, walking down the street. I went, 'Gordie, what are you doing here?' So we had a good 20 minutes in the street. It was great to catch up again...
"Talking to Gorden Tallis today, he used to say that everyone used to talk about Queensland being underdogs. He said, 'we never, ever saw it that way,' and Australia will be exactly the same.
'It's something that we've talked about from day one. If you're in a position where it comes down to this every 12 years and you get to pull the shirt on for the Wallabies and the privilege that goes with that, representing your country, they'll be fighting tooth and nail, won't they.'
The loss to injury of powerhouse forwards Will Skelton and Rob Valetini has been another boost to the Lions' favouritism for this Test series opener but Farrell's kicking coach Johnny Sexton was similarly dismissive of such outside noise when he spoke to the media on Friday, inside the stadium where he had made his debut as a Test Lions in 2013.
'We don't pay too much attention to the bookies odds or what people are saying,' the former fly-half said. 'We're just concentrating on tomorrow and trying to put a great performance out there.
'That's what will be needed: a great performance, not a good performance, to beat this Australian team. They're a proud nation, they're a top class team, they're well-coached, and we need to get the best version of ourselves out there.'
Asked to elaborate on what 'great… not good' actually looked like from a Lions point of view, Sexton said: 'We have a game plan, we have all sorts of things we want to achieve in terms of the rugby side of things, good or okay is not going to be good enough.
'We need to do it really, really well to impose our game on Australia and I think that is where all the focus is for the players now, really zoning in on the plan and if that is clear in your mind it allows you to bring in the other things in rugby which are important, which is your physicality, showing how much it means to play for the Lions.'
The tourists will be tested, this is a Joe Schmidt team after all, and one desperate to take their once every dozen years' shot at the Lions. The Wallabies will be thoroughly cheesed off by being dismissed as a threat to Farrell's squad but they may find themselves outgunned physically by an all-singing, all-dancing forward pack that could seriously limit the amount of go-forward ball the likes of Ikitau, Suaalii and full-back Tom Wright need to thrive in broken field play.
Farrell made that clear when he issued his demands for the Lions in Brisbane.
'You've got to stamp your authority on the game and understand that it's not going to go swimmingly well all the time. How you react to that sort of stuff, to make sure that you stay on point because that's the nature when two sides in a Test match that means so much, that's how it's going to go.
'So how we're physically and mentally in control, that's going to be key.'
AUSTRALIA: T Wright; M Jorgensen, J-A Suaalii, L Ikitau, H Potter; T Lynagh, J Gordon; J Slipper, M Faessler, A Alaalatoa; N Frost, J Williams; N Champion de Crespigny, F McReight, H Wilson - captain.
Replacements: B Pollard, A Bell, T Robertson, T Hooper, C Tizzano, T McDermott, B Donaldson, A Kellaway.
BRITISH & IRISH LIONS: H Keenan (Ireland); T Freeman (England), H Jones (Scotland), S Tuipulotu (Scotland), J Lowe (Ireland); F Russell (Scotland), J Gibson-Park (Ireland); E Genge (England), D Sheehan (Ireland), T Furlong (Ireland); M Itoje (England) – captain, J McCarthy (Ireland); T Beirne (Ireland), T Curry (England), J Conan (Ireland).
Replacements: R Kelleher (Ireland), A Porter (Ireland), W Stuart (England), O Chessum (England), B Earl (England), A Mitchell (England), M Smith (England), B Aki (Ireland).
Referee: Ben O'Keeffe (New Zealand)