Will Joe Schmidt's dice roll on Tom Lynagh define the series?

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

The battle of the fly-halves could just be the head-to-head that defines this series between Australia and the British & Irish Lions.
Yet ahead of Saturday's first Test at Suncorp Stadium, it was the intrigue of not knowing which way it would go that made the duel between the Wallabies' rookie fly-half Tom Lynagh and Finn Russell, the Lions number 10, ready to cement his reputation as a world-class playmaker, that was so fascinating.
Joe Schmidt's decision to hand 22-year-old Lynagh his first Test start in just his fourth international for Australia has to be considered a gamble. When first-choice 10 Noah Lolesio went down with a neck injury in the Wallabies' first game of 2025 against Fiji a fortnight ago, Schmidt's plans for this series needed an urgent rethink.
He could have called on the more experienced Western Force fly-half/full-back Ben Donaldson to fill the breach, or even doubled down on his decision to call veteran James O'Connor out of a two-year Test exile to steady the ship.
Instead, Schmidt has rolled the dice on the inexperienced son of Australian rugby royalty, Michael Lynagh, who started at 10 throughout the 1989 series against the Lions.
The former Ireland boss, who is due to go up against his old defence coach and successor on the Irish job Andy Farrell in this opening rubber of the 2025 series, admitted on Tuesday he was unsure how things will turn out with Tom Lynagh at the helm, accepting it was 'probably not ideal' to hand a first international start to an untested number 10 against the Lions.
Yet Schmidt sees something of the old man in Lynagh junior and that bodes well for Australia's bid to shake off the underdog tag and take this series to the Lions.
'I always felt that Michael had a real quiet control of games and a calmness about the way that he ran the game,' Schmidt said. 'And I do think there's a bit of that in Tom.
'It's always the same when you haven't seen someone at the level and they haven't been put under the pressure that's going to come, then you're not quite sure how things are going to work out. But I have real confidence in Tom and I'm sure Michael does as well.'
Lions kicking coach Johnny Sexton, who made his Test debut in the famous red jersey 12 years ago on the same ground that Lynagh and Russell, 32, will do battle on Saturday morning, knows all about the pressures that are likely to come the 22-year-old Queensland Reds' way in his home stadium.
It was by the side of that pitch on Friday, where the Irishman guided the Lions to victory over the Wallabies in 2013, that Sexton backed Lynagh to go well, but not too well.
'He's inexperienced in terms of the international arena, three Tests off the bench and a first start. It's a big ask for him isn't it but what a story from his point of view,' Sexton said.
'To come from the Lynagh family is a bit of pressure straight away but he seems like a calm head, I've never met the guy but seems like a mature guy. He seems like he's going to be able to manage the game well in terms of what Joe will be asking him to do.
'I hope he goes well because you never want to see any 10s go badly but hopefully not too well.'
It was in stark contrast to Lynagh that Sexton assessed Russell's capabilities as the Scot readied himself for his own Lions Test start, four years on from a debut off the bench against South Africa in Cape Town and eight years past his membership of an infamous 'Geography Six' flown in by Warren Gatland for the express purpose of saving Test players' legs in midweek tour games against New Zealand Super Rugby franchises.
'He has been very stressed,' Sexton joked of the title-winning Bath fly-half.
'He has been relaxed as always, you wouldn't know it's the week of a Test match. You can see the work he does, though. You have a perception of him from the outside and I would have had the same, in terms of he is a relaxed guy and just takes things in his stride. But he does a lot of work behind the scenes, and he's been really good this week in prepping the team. As a 10, you need the guys around you prepared, you need to know what you are doing together and he has done a great job of that so far. Hopefully he'll continue his form.
'I'm sure Joe will have a plan because he'll know how integral he is to our team, and I'm sure he'll be doing everything to cut him off.'
Sexton has not always been so complimentary of his former Six Nations rival, of course, and his label of Russell as 'flashy' has been difficult to live down, though the pair buried the hatchet ahead of the Lions' departure for Australia.
Even so, the Lions assistant admitted he had been surprised and impressed by working with Russell on this tour.
'Like everyone, I think in the last couple of years he's really matured as a player. You can see, Bath getting to finals, winning trophies, you can't do that if you're just that kind of mercurial 10.
'You've seen that now this year. He's got his team over the line and he's won a few trophies and he's carried that form into here. We always knew, particularly when you're surrounding him with the players he's got around him, he's going to bring the best out of them and they'll bring the best out of him. So hoping that he continues that tomorrow and has a good one.'
Brilliance, maturity, and steel, Sexton added.
'Well, he's been probably our best defender in the backline on this tour so far, I would say. You always knew that was in there, he's a feisty guy out there. Physically he doesn't look that big but he's fronted up big time on this tour, a lot of impact tackles and we'll need him tomorrow in that regard because they'll be coming down his channel, I'm sure.' So did that mean the term 'flashy' no longer applied?
'Oh, he's still flash, yeah! He'd hate it if I said 'no',' Sexton instantly replied.
'You see you've got to remember that I was talking about Gatland about that, I was saying what I thought he would be thinking, not what I was thinking.
'But in the last couple of years he's come into his own as a 10 and he's been able to manage a team because ultimately that's the main job that he's got tomorrow, is to manage all the guys around him.
'And then his brilliance will come out, once he's into the game.'