Going for gold: How Eales and the Wallabies stunned the Lions in Australia

The Age

14-07-2025

Eales was confident in his team's tactics, knowing that the Wallabies could execute it far better given a second chance. The Wallabies ran out at a charged MCG covered in gold and levelled the series.
Before each Test, Eales would find a random fan in the stands wearing a Wallabies jersey, focus on them and sing the Australian national anthem with them. In the MCG, Eales was spoiled for choice after Rugby Australia had hastily procured thousands of gold scarves for fans ahead of the Test.
'I think it (the crowd) definitely had an effect, that's where that push started because there was so much red (in Brisbane), for everyone, the word was wear gold,' Eales said.
'There were 10 to 20,000 flimsy gold scarves that were handed out, whatever they could get their hands on in a space of a week, but it made a difference when you saw those flecks of gold out there and you knew the crowd was behind you.
'There were many times ... you can be in a far corner of the world and just have a patch of the crowd that is clearly cheering for you, and gold stands out in the crowd, and that can be just as much of a boost because you feel that real sense of responsibility for that group of people...it's very special.'
In January, Eales had an opportunity to spend time with the Wallabies in camp and asked if the current crop of players can replicate the heroics of his class of 2001. The two-time World Cup winner is confident that a series victory under Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt is possible.
'For sure they can (win the series), no one has a mortgage on the results and no series is decided before it's played,' Eales said.
'You can speculate about what might happen, but this Wallaby team is going to play with a lot of passion, but passion is only useful to a certain point, especially when you're playing at the top level, because everyone has passion, but it has to be passion with purpose and strategy, a purpose and a plan.
'I think what we've got now that we didn't have say two years ago, to the same extent, is that there's a building confidence in the way the team wants to play and it hasn't always worked, but you can see that it is building, and the team is building in confidence.'
Eales is not only excited by the potential of a long-awaited series against the Lions in Australia, but the legacy that a victory could provide for generations ahead.
'I don't think anyone doesn't support the Wallabies because they're an Australian team that does grab people's attention, but it's probably not as much a part of a psyche across Australian sport as it was 24 years ago, but that can change really quickly.'
'A team can be elevated to a higher level, and people pay attention. Australians love winners, but they also love the intrigue of a story, and the Lions will bring some of that intrigue.'