Debates about the Lions' relevance are laughable - they are a commercial juggernaut in a relatively cash-poor sport
And yet the 2025 tour of Australia has merely gone to reinforce the awesome resilience of an idea that sounds like it was cooked up in whatever was the 1880s equivalent of a slow-news-day podcast mailbag.
Seriously, there's no killing this thing.
Tests one and three were sell-outs – the latter in a monsoon – while the second Test brought more than 90,000 people to the MCG. Word from the ground was of comparatively curtailed journalist access but the Tour dominated sports media output regardless, while it once again wormed its way into our daily talk.
This column missed the third Test for a wedding but was kept in the loop by a priest who read out score updates from the church altar, delivered to him via his smartwatch. (Technology has even made it easier for the clergy to bear witness and go forth with the word.)
This meant that everyone made a boatload of money out of it all: players could take more earnestly about a Lions call-up being their greatest possible honour given it's their most lucrative possible honour, while the long-suffering accountants at Rugby Australia can finally loosen their neck-ties with the union landing an estimated profit of AU$100 million.
So forget about questions as to whether a Lions tour remains sustainable in rugby's professional era. In some countries, the Lions tours is what's sustaining professionalism.
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So the idea that a Lions tour today remains an anachronism is a nonsense. It might feel like a throwback, but aside from the Six Nations and the French Top 14, it's pretty much the only reliably bankable competition format in pro rugby nowadays.
This speaks as much to World Rugby's insipid efforts at growing their sport, of course, and the fact they've yet to figure out how to make the sums add up for their own World Cup. (MIGHT NEED A FIGURE OR TWO TO ILLUSTRATE THIS POINT. AVERAGE READER WILL PRESUME THE WORLD CUP MAKES MONEY)
In their seemingly endless efforts to stimulate growth, rugby's custodians have been hacking away at history and precedent like Viktor Frankenstein, which is how a once-Celtic League now encompasses South Africa; why the Rugby Championship now has four teams bouncing across three championships; and why the pace of format change in the Heineken Cup nowadays would give even the AI divisions of Silicon Valley a headache.
The Lions tour, by contrast, can sell tradition, which our aforementioned Frankensteins are making more valuable by guaranteeing its scarcity.
That said, this Lions tour succeeded in a ways that upended that tradition. Sky Sports' ordinarily hype the thing to absurd levels, and they started strongly in this respect with that ad featuring a snarling Gerard Butler in full chest-thumping, this-is-Sparta mode.
The Lions is easily parodied, of course, and this kind of hyping has a perverse genius in allowing so many of its objectors believe themselves to be first-rate satirists, under the principle that there's no such thing as bad publicity.
But it seemed Sky got the bulk of their nonsense out of their system early, because from there they put together a truly outstanding production, allowing the hype to be first muffled by the warm chemistry and then pierced by the sharp insights of the O'Gara/Biggar duo. In returning to Miles Harrison, Sky also had a truly great commentator who, unlike his football counterpart Peter Drury, understands that the key to great TV commentary is knowing when not to speak.
Ordinarily, the Lions are outsiders and we spend much of the Test build-up trying to convince ourselves that this will be competitive, but this time around, the Lions were favourites and we wasted hours talking of how the whole thing would be totally uncompetitive when, in fact, it largely was. The Lions won the series 2-1, but by just a single point if scores are aggregated across three Tests.
It's a Test series destined to be left in strange standing: the tour that felt more competitive in retrospect than in real-time. Lions' sighs of relief about Will Skelton's poor fitness levels, for instance, blew much harder after the third test than in advance of the first.
The other lesson of the tour is that life was more fun when Warren Gatland was ignoring Irish players. That Ireland dominated the coaching staff and playing squad was predictable and admirable, of course, but it was hardly celebrated back home.
Lions tours are really about emotional, near-nationalist furores about selection slights, which is why the O'Driscoll-less series win in 2013 will always be more memorable in Ireland than the Leinster and Irish Lions' victory of 2025.
Virtually every facet of a Lions tour is analysed through the prism as to whether this whole enterprise should exist or not, when in reality it's among the healthiest products in the sport. Rugby across the world might be in a better place if the same existential perspective was applied to everything else, too.
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- RTÉ News
Double try-scorer Anna McGann relishing Ireland competition
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Irish Times
19 hours ago
- Irish Times
How will the Lions tour impact Ireland's rugby philosophy?
As Andy Farrell and his Irish coaches return to their day jobs with the IRFU , questions inevitably turn to what they might have learned with the Lions . Cynical views of the Irish-dominated tour focus on Farrell using the opportunity to both mine information and develop players in a way that benefits Ireland . Such a narrative is disrespectful, discounting as it does the importance of the Lions as a standalone entity. Still, there is no doubt that, in a number of areas, there is plenty of intellectual property returning to Irish shores. How Farrell and co have gone about their business, and what they learned from Australia's attempts to counteract them, offer an intriguing window into how his rugby philosophy, and with it Ireland's fortunes, might develop from here. Here are some of the main statistical takeaways from the tour. READ MORE S tyle s w i n f i ght s Much has been made in recent months of a shift in Ireland's style of play. The days of intricate phase-play attack, with carry after carry being used to break down a defence, aren't gone. But they are numbered. Ireland used to dominate attacking volume numbers; more carries, more passes than the opposition. That is no longer the case. The blueprint of successful knockout rugby has been adopted. South Africa won two World Cups offering minuscule attacking output, kicking plenty and relying on their defence. While not copying them to the nth degree, Leinster have tried a similar ploy in order to end their knockout hoodoo. It worked (to a point) as the United Rugby Championship crown was secured. Ireland are back at the World Cup. How will they fare? Listen | 23:53 What, then, of the Lions? There's no way Ireland would shift their attacking gameplan without Farrell's input, even if he wasn't around during the Six Nations as Simon Easterby held the fort. Sure enough, the Lions adopted a similar mantra. In all three Tests down under, Farrell's side were happy playing with less of the ball - Australia averaged 131 carries per game, the Lions 99. The tourists also had a lower kick-to-pass ratio, meaning they kicked more often than the Wallabies. When attacking volume diminishes in bigger games, it can be argued that efficiency then becomes rugby's most important stat. In the first two Tests, the Lions and Australia had virtually the same figure for points per 22 entry. In the final Test, which Australia won, they were comfortably more efficient, notching 2.7 points per entry vs 1.5. In big games, the side that attacks less, kicks more but is more efficient with the opportunities they do get tends to win. The third Test, which Australia won while being both more efficient and dominant in terms of attacking volume, is difficult to analyse. This is because the Lions had already won the series, while the lightning delay also played a part in Sydney. None of the above dispels the modern trend pioneered by the Springboks which is now seeping into Irish rugby. Expect Farrell, after using a similar pragmatic game plan with the best players in the home nations, to double down with Ireland. Australia were relived to have Will Skelton back for the second Test, even if in-game statistics point to them doing all right without him. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho B i g b o pper s Simple narratives are sometimes dispelled by the data. Occasionally, they are backed up by the numbers. As the Test series progressed, analysis focused on the impact of Will Skelton and Rob Valetini in Test number two, and later Taniela Tupou in the final game. Once Australia got back their power athletes, they presented a greater threat. In some ways, the numbers don't really back this up. Skelton carried for 12 metres in the 47 minutes of rugby his body allowed in Test one, and then 16 the week after. In Tupou's lone Test, he made 19 metres. These are decent figures for positions which require carrying through heavy traffic. Yet in isolation, they were hardly game-changing impacts. Valetini for his part was more impressive with 28 metres in the 40 minutes he lasted. Tadhg Beirne was the only forward in the second Test who made more (34) and he was fit enough to last the full 80. However, looking at the individual output risks losing the overall impact. In the first Test - without Skelton, Valetini or Tupou - Australia had a dominant carry rate of 18 per cent. This rose to 28 per cent the following week. In the first Test, they had 273 post-contact metres. Seven days later in Melbourne, despite having fewer carries, they made 352 metres after contact. The impact of Australia's big boppers opened up space for the whole team to improve. Quelle surprise, it pays to have a handful of supreme power athletes to call upon. The Lions had a few of their own, with the likes of Ellis Genge and Joe McCarthy standing out. 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Mack Hansen did not feature in the Tests but reminded Andy Farrell of just how effective he is during the Lions' tour matches in Australia. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho Return o f the Mack Of all the Ireland players first called into the Lions squad by Farrell, Mack Hansen may have been the most relieved. While many weren't surprised that the Connacht wing made the cut due to the respect he has earned from the Ireland and Lions coach, some questioned if he had the requisite game time to build up form. Injuries have been a problem in the last 18 months. A dislocated shoulder meant he missed the 2024 Six Nations. This year, he played in three of Ireland's five championship matches, while his last Connacht appearance of the campaign came in April. If there were questions on Hansen's form and fitness heading into the tour, he resolutely answered them once he reached Australia. A narrative emerged that, had he not suffered another injury while on tour, he could have pushed Tommy Freeman for the Test 14 jersey. The numbers back up this assertion as Hansen ranks highly in a number of attacking categories. Of all the players capped by the Lions on this tour, he ranked fifth for defenders beaten (12), first for line breaks (eight), fifth for metres made (234), joint first for try assists (three) and fourth for line-break assists (four). That he only clocked 277 minutes on tour, ranked 23rd in the Lions squad, shows his impact in an injury-limited window. Caveats may apply given Hansen only appeared against tour opposition and not in the Test matches. Nevertheless, with Tommy O'Brien turning into a selection threat given his form on the right wing for Leinster and Ireland while on tour of Georgia and Portugal, Hansen appears to have timed his return to form nicely.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
Matt Williams: Never mind the naysayers, the Lions tour of Australia was a big success
Loud voices from the north have been arguing that this has not been a great Lions team and that Australia is unworthy to host future Lions tours. As the former head coach of rugby at the Australian Institute of Sport, the great Brian 'Boxhead' O'Shea, would tell me: 'Just because people are loud and aggressive does not make them right.' Here are some facts from the last five Lions tours that expose many of the falsehoods being tossed about by those loud and aggressive voices. Examination of the average amount of points the Lions scored on their past five tours tells us that this Australian tour has not been a walkover for the Lions. READ MORE On their 2009 tour of South Africa, the average points scored by the Lions during their tour games (that is, not a Test match) was 37. In the Test matches against the Springboks, the average points scored was 25. In Australia in 2013, the tour games averaged 46 and the Tests 26. On the 2017 tour of New Zealand, regarded as the toughest of the professional era, the tour games average was 22 points. In the three Tests, the Lions averaged 18 points. On the 2021 tour of South Africa, the tour games averaged a staggering 45 points and the horridly negative tactics of both teams meant that the Lions only managed to average 16 points in the Test matches. During the 2025 tour of Australia, the Lions averaged 39 points in the tour games. So on this tour the Lions scored fewer points against the Australian provincial teams than they did in their 2013 and 2021 tours and only two points more than in South Africa in 2009. Yet the false narrative from the loud and aggressive would have you believe that on this tour the Australians were so weak that the Lions' scores have been overwhelming. In the three Tests against Australia in 2025, the Lions averaged the exact same number of points as they did on the exceptionally challenging tour to New Zealand in 2017. Hugo Keenan's scores the try that clinched a series victory for the Lions in Australia. Photograph:Across the three Test matches of this tour the Lions scored 68 points and the Wallabies scored 67. Hardly an avalanche of difference. Of the six halves of Test match rugby played, the Lions won only two and, perhaps more importantly, the Wallabies won four. The numbers don't lie. To account for the unexpectedly successful response from the Wallabies the loud and aggressive have turned on their own and are twisting the truth, trying to claim this Lions team was below standard. All utter rubbish. Apart from the opening 25 minutes of the first Test, the obvious key factor across the three Tests was the remarkable improvement in the Wallabies. Their journey from the awful display against Fiji to winning the third Test was remarkable. The only grave error that the Lions organisation and their supporters made is that they forgot that the tour was as much for Australia as it was for the Lions. The narrative that this tour was somehow not a raging success for both the Lions and Rugby Australia is deeply false. Consider that 453,167 people attended matches across this exceptional tour. A record for the Lions. The second Test at the MCG held the highest attendance ever for a Lions match. The Tests produced some brilliant rugby in a highly competitive series that generated bundles of cash for the four Lions nations and has bailed Australia out of a financial quagmire. One estimate of profit sits at AUS$51 million (€28.5 million). Money that will go into youth development, the women's game, supporting amateur clubs and the next generation of players. Money that will wipe out Rugby Australia's massive debts and allow the game in to survive in Australia. For that alone, every Lions supporter should be proud. A big thank you to the north from all with crooked noses and Brussel sprout ears Down Under. On the field, the fear of being humiliated by the Lions triggered the players wearing that famous gold jersey to find something inside themselves that they did not know they possessed and to play like none of us thought they could. Which is the essence of why we encourage our youth to play rugby. It teaches every player, including those in Test matches, that they have more potential inside them than they can ever imagine. As a collective the power of what a Lions tour means drove the Wallabies to lift themselves to almost snatch the series. After the unmitigated disaster that was the Lions in South Africa 2021, Andy Farrell and his team have re-established the on-field standards demanded by the great traditions of the Lions. Andy Farrell and Joe Schmidt could each be satisfied with their teams' efforts during the Lions tour of Australia. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho The Lions played a high tempo, attractive and entertaining style of running rugby that Australians enjoyed and appreciated. For which the Lions deserve great credit and respect. If the Lions had continued with the negative and self-destructive tactics from 2021, the Australian public, who demand running rugby, would have walked away and the game in Oz may not have survived. In their post-tour review, I would respectfully ask the Lions' management to change one crucial aspect of their off-field processes. In the future, the Lions players must not be shut away from the local rugby community, with the shallow aim of producing huge swathes of social media content to send back to the north to generate money. On the field, the Lions were inspirational. Off the field, they did not interact with any real effect with the Australian rugby community. In a country where the game is on its knees, that was a heartbreaking error. From day one of this tour, a false narrative has been pushed from the north that ignores facts. It attempted to create the perception that Australian rugby was so far beneath the standards of the combined strength of the north that they are not worthy of a full Lions tour. They never let the truth get in the way of some good old-fashioned Aussie bashing and the Wallabies have proved them all wrong. The Lions won the series and, counter-intuitively, ignited a Wallaby resurgence. Financially, the game has been saved in Oz and the four home unions have cash bulging from their pockets. A Lions tour doesn't get much better than that. Here is one truth that you can bank on. The Lions will be back in Australia in 2037.
