Five things that should make Lions fans confident

Telegraph

16-07-2025

'It's a weird thing. It shouldn't work. But it does because of the buy-in.'
That was Brian O'Driscoll's assessment of the British and Irish Lions in 2017 before he presented those selected for the first Test against New Zealand with their match shirts.
Standing on the verge of another series, preparing to take on Australia rather than the All Blacks, the touring team face kinder odds than they did eight years ago. That said, Joe Schmidt is bound to have cooked up cunning plans.
Despite five victories from five fixtures and an aggregate scoreline of 42-11 in their favour on Australian soil, the Lions have not had things all their own way. By this stage, though, they have gelled and established attributes on which to hang their hat as a side.
Finn Russell: The world's form fly-half?
This tour should have quashed any remaining impressions of Finn Russell as an impulsive maverick on the pitch. Serene is probably the best way to describe his tour so far. To borrow cricketing parlance, the Scotland fly-half is seeing it big.
Matthieu Jalibert enjoyed a fine 2024-25 campaign with Union Bordeaux-Bègles, while Damian McKenzie, George Ford and Tomás Albornoz have all excelled of late. Russell, however, looks to be completely in tune with his game.
His decision-making at the gain-line has been allied with crisp distribution. Take these two clips from the victory over the Reds. Jamison Gibson-Park feeds Bundee Aki at first-receiver and Russell loops around his centres to receive a pull-back from Huw Jones that goes behind Elliot Daly.
Russell slows his stride to tempt Tim Ryan and lifts the ball into the path of Duhan van der Merwe as the Reds left wing bites in:
Later in the same half, from a similar strike move, Russell has Van der Merwe arriving on his right shoulder again. This time, the pass goes across Van der Merwe to Daly and Tommy Freeman scores:
The Lions ran the same pattern in the opposite direction against the Brumbies. Russell works the overlap – which James Lowe would waste – with a rapid take-and-give across the face of Freeman to Blair Kinghorn:
Ryan Lonergan, the Brumbies scrum-half, threw something different at the Lions by shooting up to cut off passing lanes. Russell remained entirely unruffled. An expert at deceptive body language, he feigns a looping pass towards the near touchline here before sending Tom Curry into the space vacated by a jumping Corey Toole. That gives Curry time to release the offload:
Solid, even stinging defence has been another feature of Russell's displays. Interestingly, tactical kicking has been conspicuous by its rarity. Russell has only put boot to ball 11 times so far and did not do so once against the Reds. The Lions kicked 30 times against the Western Force, but only three of those were struck by Russell.
There was a glimpse of how the 32-year-old can tease back-field coverage in Canberra as he dropped to the pocket and pinned back the Brumbies:
These days, the ability to control territory in a patient and assured manner is one of Russell's biggest strengths. Expect it to come to the fore once the Tests begin.
Jamison Gibson-Park: An ideal foil
With Antoine Dupont still recovering from the knee injury he suffered in the Six Nations four months ago, Jamison Gibson-Park has a strong claim to being the best scrum-half in the world.
His passing range from the base of rucks and will challenge the Wallabies defence in a different way and give Russell more time. Andy Farrell encourages his scrum-halves to change direction and zip back against the grain on the back of impactful carries. That approach has been prominent for the Lions. Maro Itoje's try against the Reds was a good example…
…as was Ollie Chessum's score against the Brumbies:
While there has been plenty of width and ambition to the Lions' attack, a short passage against the Brumbies hinted at how they can narrow things up and plough close to the fringes. Gibson-Park is integral, feeding Chessum behind the run of Tadhg Furlong and then launching Joe McCarthy two phases after that:
Intuitive support play in broken-field situations is another asset. Simon Easterby will ask the Lions scrum-halves to be leaders in defence and to maintain width in the front line, with Gibson-Park's kicking also critical. And this is where he and Russell can really confound the Wallabies.
In this next passage, Gibson-Park calls his forwards around the corner…
…before looking to set up another ruck on the openside:
This is a reasonably strong indication that a box-kick is on the way. However, Russell calls for a pass and the Lions open up the pitch, with Kinghorn feeding Dan Sheehan on the near touchline:
An explosive charge follows and the Lions are away:
The partnership between Gibson-Park and Russell has the hallmarks of a classic Lions connection. If it fires, one imagines, it will steer the side towards a series triumph.
An 80-minute scrum
For an idea of how dominant the Lions scrum has been, both in the Argentina game and on tour, they have won 10 penalties from 37 put-ins according to Stats Perform – a figure that includes re-sets. Five more put-ins have resulted in tries. Despite understandable teething problems with the set-up, which have led to a few penalties, the Lions should be pleased.
One suspects that Ellis Genge and Andrew Porter will form a formidable double-act at loosehead prop. Even if a question mark remains at tighthead, Furlong contributed to a destructive scrummaging display effort against the Brumbies. Barring the Reds match, when it got a little scruffy, the Lions have tended to rip through Australian scrums in the final quarter.
Clearly, the Wallabies are likely to offer more resistance. But the tourists should have the tight-five depth to squeeze this area as the 80 minutes goes on.
Versatile forwards
From the initial squad announcement on May 8, it was clear that Farrell wanted adaptable forwards that would allow him to impart width. Every one of the specialist back-rowers on this tour – Jack Conan, Tom Curry, Ben Earl, Jac Morgan, Henry Pollock, Josh van der Flier – has spent time hugging a touchline. Sheehan has licence to do the same, with McCarthy and Chessum given chances to open their stride as well.
Even in the absence of a wrecking ball back-rower, which are reasonably rare anyway, the Lions should have punch and passing expertise in the pods of three and four that set themselves in the middle of the pitch. Genge and Porter are important in that regard. Defensive decision-making around the breakdown has also improved since the loss to Argentina, which was characterised by organisational lapses.
The element of surprise
Having rejigged his back-five combinations liberally, Farrell has made the Lions a moving target for Schmidt and his analysts. There will be scope to mix things up with the make-up of his match-day 23 as well, either deploying two back-rowers on the bench if a hybrid is picked at blindside flanker or opting for a six-two split of forwards among the replacements.
And then there is the concept of layering, which can be applied in various areas. For example, the Lions ran a four-man pod off the second phase following goal-line drop-outs against Argentina. From goal-line drop-outs against the Waratahs, they twice set up a four-man pod before the fly-half, Marcus Smith in this instance, darted to the other side of the ruck with Huw Jones:
Against the Brumbies, the Lions were stringing together back-to-back phases with four-man pods. There have also been some intriguing – if messy – line-out plays. Lowe rushed up to join this line-out against the Brumbies, dropping the transfer from Itoje:
A midfield switch between Aki and Conan is worth keeping in mind. It was run twice, leading to turnovers on both occasions:
But it could be the precursor to something more complex; either a multi-phase strike or a complex wrinkle such as the blindside wing blasting through to take the ball on another angle. Andrew Goodman is renowned for devising strike moves. Farrell will undoubtedly have a curveball or two in store.