{"id":321584,"date":"2025-08-06T04:24:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T04:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/321584\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T04:24:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T04:24:11","slug":"wallabies-can-take-heart-from-lions-series-for-litmus-tests-against-south-africa-australia-rugby-union-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/321584\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallabies can take heart from Lions series for litmus Tests against South Africa | Australia rugby union team"},"content":{"rendered":"

If Australian rugby is to take a key learning from the British & Irish Lions tour and adopt a credo for the upcoming Rugby Championship<\/a> and the road to the 2027 World Cup, Will Skelton nailed it at half-time on Saturday: \u201cWe don\u2019t take no itshay.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 203cm, 145kg colossus\u2019s performance was as big as he was in the Wallabies\u2019 stirring victory in Sydney. But Skelton\u2019s fighting words to his team<\/a> \u2013 \u201cKeep fighting. Keep fighting for each other. Keep fighting for the jersey\u201d \u2013 and the pig Latin catchcry that followed was a crudity that offered perfect clarity to Joe Schmidt\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

By taking no shit from the Lions \u2013 showing aggression, attacking from every angle, hurting their enemy in mind and body \u2013 Australia rattled their opposition and won ascendancy. Unlike in Brisbane where they found fire only when 24-5 down, or Melbourne where they let the initiative slip when leading 23-5, the Wallabies this time showed the ruthless edge fans have waited so long for, leading for all 80 minutes.<\/p>\n

As they set their jaws for the flight to South Africa on Friday and twin litmus Tests against the world champions, Australia should be confident of upsetting rugby\u2019s No 1 side. The Springboks have only lightly tuned up for this series with two cantered victories against Italy (No 10) and one over Georgia (No 11). Conversely, the Wallabies are fit and full of fire after smashing the Lions and finding their mongrel mojo.<\/p>\n

The touring squad Schmidt names on Thursday must be as bold as his Sydney 23. He will be without his two first-pick fly halves, with young Tom Lynagh ruled out with another concussion after being illegally cleared out in Sydney, and Noah Lolesio out for the season with a neck injury sustained in the Fiji Test in July. He may also lose his preferred half Jake Gordon to the hamstring twinges that cost him an appearance in the third Test.<\/p>\n

That means the axis of attack in South Africa will again fall to unfamiliar alchemies being forged in the Test furnace. \u200b\u200bBen Donaldson will get his chance to start at No 10, after coming off the bench in Brisbane and Sydney, with the veteran James O\u2019Connor, 35, the likely wildcard on the pine. Nic White\u2019s call to retire post-Sydney inspired his side but the little general might be needed for two last outings against the Springboks.<\/p>\n

Rob Valetini during the second Test against the Lions at the MCG. Photograph: James Ross\/AAP<\/p>\n

Vitally, back-to-back John Eales medallist Rob Valetini will tour. But it is Skelton\u2019s name that must be first on the team sheet. Without him and Valetini in the Lions opener in Brisbane, Australia looked timid and tepid. Yet in every minute Skelton was on the field in the Tests that followed, the Wallabies were bossing the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

Skelton neatly encapsulates the enigma of Australian rugby this past decade. Born in New Zealand to Samoan parents, he was raised in western Sydney and played rugby league for most of his early years before finding union in his mid-teens. Unlike most, he stuck at it, was brought into the Waratahs fold by his mentor Michael Cheika aged 21 (his second start was against the 2013 Lions) and won a Test debut in 2014.<\/p>\n

Skelton\u2019s size 17s walked out on Australia in 2017. With Saracens in the UK and, more recently, La Rochelle in France\u2019s Top 14, he has since won four European Championships. For six years, as Australian rugby hit the skids and their biggest stars joined the exodus overseas, Skelton existed as the Wallabies\u2019 lost colossus.<\/p>\n

Not until 2021 \u2013 1,814 days after his last Test \u2013 did he return to the XXXXL gold jersey. A mixed bag of international cameos since then has gradually roused the sleeping giant. Yet at age 33 he has played only 33 Tests. This fortnight has shown the power Skelton wields to inspire his teammates while intimidating their enemies. Now the big man is rolling, the juggernaut must continue.<\/p>\n

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Schmidt is schmoozing Skelton to delay his return to France to fly on to South Africa. And Rugby Australia chiefs \u2013 its chief executive, Phil Waugh, and high performance boss, Peter Horne \u2013 have told the coach there is \u201cno impediment to select whoever he wants\u201d from Australians playing around the world. Horne says the Giteau Law \u2013 in which only overseas players with 60 Tests could be selected for Test duty \u2013 is \u201credundant\u201d.<\/p>\n

The former Wallaby Quade Cooper has long reckoned, \u201cIf we want to compete with the world we need to select the world\u2019s best players, regardless of where they play.\u201d It is probably too late to keep three stars of the Sydney Test from heading abroad \u2013 Taniela Tupou is joining Racing 92 while the man of the match, Tom Hooper, is off to Exeter and Langi Gleeson to Montpellier \u2013 but after years of selecting only home-based talent and not stars plying their trade abroad, the gates are at last open to the barbarians.<\/p>\n

That includes Skelton. With him at the helm, Australia can challenge South Africa at home, put Argentina to the sword in Townsville and Sydney and even wrest back the Bledisloe Cup from New Zealand for the first time since 2002. And that\u2019s no itshay.<\/p>\n