Matt Williams: Lions can't afford to be infected by Irish rugby's sense of entitlement against resurgent Australia

Irish Times

7 hours ago

Last weekend proved that 80 minutes of rugby can be a very long time in the professional game. After
Leinster's stunning performance at Croke Park
, they have gladly passed the chokers' T-shirt to the Bulls, who have now lost three
United Rugby Championship
finals in four years.
At Twickenham, the Premiership final was as enjoyable as getting a tooth pulled, with the highlight being a legendary Michael Cheika sideline blow-up.
In Super Rugby, the Brumbies were pumped out of the playoffs by the Chiefs, making it four seasons in a row that the Australian side have departed the Super Rugby competition at the semi-final stage.
Leinster
would have been glad to get the monkey off their back when it comes to finals. Inside the fortress of the
GAA
, normal service was finally restored. At long, long last, Leo Cullen's team won the trophy that had evaded them over so many close defeats.
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All of which proves two things. Every team on the planet is only as good as their last game. And winners are grinners while losers can please themselves.
In the binary, black-and-white world of knockout rugby, you are either a winner or a loser.
Cheika worked wonders in getting Leicester to the English final in his first season.
Over the past four years, the Brumbies have consistently performed at an outstanding level despite operating in a dysfunctional Australian rugby environment.
In reaching three URC deciders in four years, the Bulls' performance must be described as exceptional. However, the reality is that on their biggest day of the rugby season, the Bulls, the Brumbies and Leicester have all come up short.
That does not make them failures
.
More than any other club on the planet, Leinster understand that sentiment.
Have Leinster answered their critics with this URC title win?
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Across the last five years, Leinster's consistency across both the URC and the Champions Cup has been historic.
Despite this, heart-breaking defeats in semi-finals and finals saw many calling for Cullen to be sacked. Sadly, many in the Leinster and wider Irish rugby community possess a deep sense of entitlement. They believed their team deserved to win because they had dominated the competition.
This type of thinking denies the basic truth that victory in every match must be earned because, as we have already established, you are only as good as your last match.
Leinster head coach Leo Cullen with Jordie Barrett after last Saturday's URC final victory against Bulls. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho
The wisdom of the leadership that sits above the coach within Leinster could see that with their incredible consistency, season after season, they did not have a coaching problem.
They understood that the club had a problem with players coping under the highest pressure imaginable.
As the Lions are jetting off to Australia, Andy Farrell will face a similar problem to Cullen.
Everyone in the northern hemisphere believes the Lions are entitled to dominate the series against the Wallabies. Wrongly, they remain fixated with the mess that was the Wallabies' 2023 World Cup campaign.
This is understandable, as it remains a compelling case in how not to approach a World Cup.
It contained a long, horrendous list of errors in selection and coaching appointments and culminated with the great Wallaby openside flanker, leader and talisman, Michael Hooper, not being selected in the World Cup squad. It remains the greatest selection blunder by the Wallabies in the professional era.
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It was the final act of two decades of mismanagement by Rugby Australia. The list of stupid decisions the Australian rugby community had to deal with across a 20-year period is hard to comprehend.
But those in the north need to understand that there have been sweeping changes since. With former players Daniel Herbert as chairman and Phil Waugh as CEO, Australia have competent leaders with a high rugby intellect.
For the first time in two decades, Australian rugby has changed for the better. While there remains a long and rocky path ahead, the game in Oz is moving forward.
Resilience is a word that gets tossed about far too easily, but across the last 18 months, I have been astounded at the resilience within Australian professional rugby ranks.
Joseph Sua'ali'i will be key to Australia's hopes against the Lions. Photograph:for Rugby Australia
While it will take a decade for the full effect of the long-term planning to take effect, the elite end of the game is recovering far quicker than I considered possible.
It is recovering to the extent that the Wallabies are capable of calling on a very strong 23 players.
With Joe Schmidt in charge for the rest of the year and his successor, Les Kiss, already appointed – backed up with the technical excellence of Laurie Fisher – the Wallaby staff possess vast experience of rugby at a very high level.
With the expected return of a number of Australian players from France and Japan, who were unavailable in recent seasons, and the stardust that Joseph Sua'ali'i will provide, the Wallabies will have vastly different personnel than the World Cup of two years ago.
More importantly, the Lions will face a contest far more ferocious than many in the northern hemisphere are predicting. Any sense of entitlement from the Lions will be punished in a very public manner.