We had spent eight months planning for the tour. But planning isn’t everything: you also need to have an ability in the moment to feel what needs to happen. In the week of the first Test, because of all the meetings that we had, I held back a presentation I had planned. On the Friday before the second Test, it felt right to shorten our captain’s run — we just did a short walk-through at the stadium — and use the time to show the squad a video message from Katie Taylor, the legendary Irish boxer.
A couple of weeks earlier, Katie had beaten Amanda Serrano, the Puerto Rican boxer who holds the record for the most world championships won in different weight classes by a woman. Now, in the changing room at the MCG in Melbourne the day before the game, I felt the time was right to share the video Katie made for us.
“The first thought is acknowledging the privilege of being part of big games,” Katie told the squad. “There is no right to win. It must be earned, every game, every fight, every tackle, every minute. The second thought I want to share is: calm my nerves. Every athlete knows there are so many variables on any given day, and for reasons I can’t fully control. Sometimes I feel sharp and strong, and my timing is perfect. Sometimes it isn’t and this can lead to performance anxiety.
Keenan celebrates the last-gasp try that sealed victory in the second Test
SUNDAY TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND
“But regardless of those things, some of which are hard to control, I know that even if it isn’t pretty, I am 100 per cent confident that I will go to the trenches if necessary. That’s a controllable. And that’s a matter of will. So, here’s my message: prepare to win by skill, but be ready to win by will.”
The players sat speechless. “Just have a minute to think about that, lads,” I told them. “There is someone who has put everything on the line.”
I knew they were ready to do the same. Out on the pitch, during the walk-through, I spoke to our back row again. “People tell me you are not able to back that performance up,” I said to Tom Curry. I told Tadhg Beirne that people didn’t think he could play well in two games on the trot. I asked Jack Conan if he thought he’d had a good game in the first Test, and how was he going to be bigger and better this week. Finally, I asked Jac Morgan what he was going to add to the group from the bench. I did the same with the centres and the wingers. I just wanted them to realise how good they were, in case they were reading some of the comments being made about them.
Beirne was one of the players Farrell challenged to prove critics wrong and went on to be named player of the series
MORGAN HANCOCK/GETTY
The Lions went 23-5 down in the first half and were trailing 26-24 going into the final stages
With ten minutes to go, Blair Kinghorn made a break down the right, and we piled into the 22, but Will Stuart was penalised for an extra roll on the ground after being tackled. Tom Lynagh [the Wallabies fly half] kicked the penalty to touch, but at the subsequent lineout Maro Itoje managed to get his hands on the ball in the maul and force the turnover. We had a scrum on the left side of the pitch about 30 metres out. It was a great attacking platform, but the Wallabies seemed intent on running down the clock by ensuring the scrum had to be reset a couple of times.
The props trade boots on the sidelines
To add to the drama, we then had the remarkable scene of Stuart having to swap boots with Tadhg Furlong on the sidelines. In the final training session before the game, I had noticed that Will’s boots were in terrible condition. “Will, your boots are taped up,” I said. “I’ve only brought one pair with me, but I only need them to get through a few more sessions and they will have done a full season,” he replied. Now, in the biggest scrum of his life, his boots had split. The ref at least stopped the clock to allow him to put his new boots on. But Will’s boots are a size 12 and Tadhg’s are only a size ten.
Facing the biggest scrum of his life, he stuffed his feet into Tadhg’s boots and got on with it.
I felt calm and I knew that, if the players stayed calm enough, there was still time to score.
Eventually, we got a free kick and Jack Conan made some ground. Then Stuart, despite his crushed feet, made some more up the left. We attacked again, with Beirne driving on, but Bundee Aki was cramping up again, and the ball went forward from a carry by Ellis Genge. Scrum to Australia, just outside their 22.
Bundee took a carb gel and a drink and carried on. Lynagh cleared long, and Hugo Keenan launched a high ball, but a huge clearance kick by Jake Gordon took play back inside our half. The clock was at 77:21 when Ronan Kelleher threw the ball into our lineout.
Sione Tuipulotu, right, and Owen Farrell enjoy the celebrations with Andy
DAVID ROGERS/GETTY
Fourteen phases later, Keenan raced over for the try that would win the match and the series. It was one of the proudest moments of my coaching career. This was the moment we had trained for. This was a band of brothers going about their work, even though their limbs were aching and their lungs burning. There was no panic, only calmness as they stretched Australia first up the right touchline, then down the left, a carry by Bundee up the middle, then right again, then left again, with Stuart somehow finding a way to carry through two tackles.
When Beirne cut back inside two defenders to take us deep into the 22, it was on. Finn Russell doesn’t do drop-goals, so we kept playing: Kinghorn up the right again, Beirne another carry. Finn’s composure at the end was remarkable. He looked left, then cut back to the right, knowing that if he was tackled the game would have been lost. But James Ryan was on hand to take the pass and charge on.
In the background, Keenan, the player who earlier on the tour had spent 12 days on the toilet with a stomach virus and shed six kilograms, found the energy to run from the right touchline in an arc to the left side of the pitch. The Wallabies defenders were stacked on the other side, unaware. But Jamison Gibson-Park was aware. The clock had entered the 80th minute when he fired his pass fast and wide, perfect for Keenan to run onto. With Conan outside him, Max Jorgensen, the Wallabies wing, had to stay out. Up in the box I screamed for Hugo to pass it to Jack, but Hugo knew better. He backed himself to take Len Ikitau on the outside and scored. We’d done it.
Extracted from The Only Way I Know by Andy Farrell, which is published by Sandycove on Oct 16 at £25