Russell's craft can cut through Campese criticism as Lions tackle Force

BBC News

3 hours ago

In a city dominated by the coughs and splutters of the Freemantle Dockers and the AFL's West Coast Eagles, the British and Irish Lions have been living in a bit of a parallel universe in Perth this past week.The local media know what shifts newspapers - and it ain't the tourists, no matter how much the rest of us are obsessing about them.Pages of AFL, more pages on ABL (basketball), the Matildas football team, the latest from the racetracks at Northam and Bendigo, Hawkesbury and Mandurah. And reams on new Australian athletics sprint sensation, the 17-year-old flying machine, Gout Gout. Blink and you'll miss him, apparently.In the Perth daily the West Australian on Friday, the Western Force versus the Lions commanded seven paragraphs on page 65 - and that was about rumours of Force wing Harry Potter doing the Evanesco vanishing spell and heading for the Waratahs next season. No Lions player was mentioned. Wearing invisibility cloaks, the lot of them.In that light, the expected crowd at the Optus Stadium on Saturday for the Lions opener on Australian soil is set to be a bit of a triumph. Tourists and ex-pats are swelling the numbers in a major way and they are talking about a crowd in excess of 40,000, maybe 45,000. The last time the Lions played in Perth, on the 2013 tour, the attendance was 35,103.
Down here in Australia there's a world of awe-inspiring wonders to behold, natural and man-made totems so stunning they can make your jaw drop to the floor.Which, in a rugby context, is a power that David Campese still possesses, in a way that's part-Alan Partridge with a hint of David Brent.At times, the once-great wing makes you stand back in bewilderment at some of the things that he's prepared to commit to air or print, with a seemingly unembarrassable air.He was at it after the Lions loss to Argentina and he's been at it again since. Maro Itoje is "not a captain," he thundered. Itoje is not in the squad for the Force game, but it's a revelation that a fine leader is not actually a leader at all."I don't know why you play (Marcus) Smith at full-back (against the Pumas), (Blair) Kinghorn is a far better player." The only problem with that searing contribution is that Kinghorn is still with Toulouse, Campo."There's no O'Driscoll at 13," he continued. Er, well spotted. Andy Farrell, he says, is playing rugby league tactics that could put him in a lot of trouble against the Wallabies. Hmm. Didn't Farrell's Ireland beat the Wallabies last autumn?Campo, to be fair, is an equal opportunities assassin, turning his guns on Joe Schmidt for wanting to play "Joe Schmidt rugby." As opposed to…His musings are all part of a Lions show in Australia. Frankly, if he wasn't piping up you'd be minded to check his pulse. None of what he says - or what anybody else on the outside says - matters, of course. The only thing that counts now is performance. And if this tour is going to reach lift-off on Saturday then perform the Lions must.It should be a soaring Lions win. That's not being disrespectful to the Force, it's being realistic. The Force finished ninth of 11 in Super Rugby this season, the lowest of the four Australian franchises. "They're hard to beat," said Farrell. Not really. They won four, lost nine and drew one.Farrell tried to talk them up, suggesting that they weren't far away in Super Rugby and that nine losing bonus points tells you that they "don't go away." But they do, regularly. They actually only got four losing bonus points. They conceded 45 points in two games and more than 50 in three more.And, against the Lions, they're missing three of their best players. Lock Jeremy Williams, back-row Carlo Tizzano and wing Potter have not been released from Wallaby camp for this one. Kurtley Beale is out injured. Nic White, the veteran scrum-half, leads the side.
Russell 'sees the whole picture'
Farrell has picked a stellar backline, with his industrious and clever wings, James Lowe and Mack Hansen, and a mouth-watering midfield with Sione Tuipulotu restored to inside centre with Garry Ringrose making his Lions debut outside him.Finn Russell is at 10. Farrell spoke glowingly about the Scot on Friday. We've come a long way since the announcement of Johnny Sexton as part of the coaching ticket had people scurrying around wondering if this meant curtains for Russell. All is sweetness and light on that front.Farrell wants his team to play with speed and imagination. There's a mantra of heads-up rugby within a basic framework. That's meat and drink to Russell. The way the Lions coaches have been talking it's as if the vision of what's to come is being built, in part, around the brilliance of the fly-half. We shall see."Finn's ability to see space allows him to think quicker than most," says Farrell. "He sees the whole picture. He's the 10. He's one of the generals."For Russell, this is a legacy tour, a probable last shot. He's had a terrific and trophy-laden season with Bath. The elan, the outrageous ability to unlock defences in ways that opponents just don't see coming is alive and well, but his game management has caught up with his natural flair in recent years. He's the complete 10.It's his third time with the Lions, but the other two were wholly unfulfilling - a member of the Geography Six in 2017 and a largely wasted asset in 2021 on possibly the dreariest Lions tour of the modern age. Covid didn't help. Neither did the stifling, risk-averse, eye-bleeding stuff we witnessed in the Test series.Russell's cameo in the third Test against South Africa was the brightest spark, but now is the time he needs to catch fire. He has everything he needs. Brilliant form. A fine pack to play behind. A strong backline around him and the Wallabies ahead of him. He's beaten them four times in a row with Scotland, once in Sydney in 2017 when he played one of his greatest games for his country. The two that he lost have been by a point both times. Nothing about the gold jersey, or any other jersey on this trip, should faze him.On Saturday, in a city founded by Sir James Stirling of Lanarkshire, Russell of Stirling has some exploration of his own to do.