Rugby-Lions wrestle with favourites tag as Wallabies mend and make do
BRISBANE (Reuters) -The British & Irish Lions have rarely been as heavily favoured to win a test as they will be for their opening clash with Australia on Saturday, even if you might not guess it listening to coach Andy Farrell.
The former rugby league player is too canny a man to hand the opposition any hubristic quotes they can snip out of the newspaper and hang on the dressing room wall for motivation, let alone give his squad any cause for complacency.
"There's no overconfidence at all," Farrell told a news conference as he faced repeated questions about the favourable odds after naming his team on Thursday.
"There's a realisation of what it is, and what it means and how privileged we are etc. But that doesn't get in the way of how we prepare to make sure that we allow ourselves to be the best version of ourselves."
Many of the thousands of travelling Lions fans already starting to fill the streets in downtown Brisbane on Thursday were not as wary of projecting their confidence, even if some of the Welsh contingent were more than a little disgruntled.
For the first time in nearly 130 years on Saturday, there will be no Welsh representative on the pitch in a Lions test after Farrell made the decision to play Tom Curry and leave out in-form Wales skipper Jac Morgan.
His Wallabies counterpart and former mentor Joe Schmidt would probably have welcomed such a selection dilemma when choosing Australia's back row, particularly with his best ball-runner Rob Valetini unavailable with a calf strain.
Having also lost his starting playmaker Noah Lolesio to injury after a warm-up test against Fiji, Schmidt selected flyhalf Tom Lynagh for his first test start and flanker Nick Champion de Crespigny for his international debut.
Lynagh has promise and pedigree as the son of Wallabies great Michael, but on Saturday will be pitting his wits against 87-cap Scotland flyhalf Finn Russell, 10 years his senior and a three-times Lions tourist.
Schmidt spoke glowingly of Lynagh's "quiet confidence" and pointed hopefully to the fact that the 22-year-old would at least be playing on his home ground.
"Probably not ideal to be starting your first test match for the Wallabies against the British & Irish Lions," he conceded.
"But you've got to start somewhere, and if not now, when? I am confident that he'll cope and I'm very confident that he'll learn from the occasion.
"I'd like to think that we can still go out, probably sharing Tom Lynagh's quiet confidence that we can put a game together that at least can keep the British & Irish Lions pretty honest on the day."
Local hopes of success otherwise appear to rely on Schmidt's coaching skills, their relatively decent test record in Brisbane, and the lore that the Wallabies "always turn up".
Farrell has warned his players constantly of the latter point and, for all the wins and razzle dazzle in the tour matches, said he would not know the true mettle of the 2025 Lions until Saturday night.
"You have to back it up. I guess I have sense that there's a determined bunch that's looking forward to what we came over here for," he said.
"But again, the test of the best laid plans is when you get punched on the nose ..."
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Toby Davis)
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