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'A series against the French would be one for the ages': Ex-Lions call for change
By Josh Raisey
Former British & Irish Lions series winner Lawrence Dallaglio has backed the idea of touring France in the future, with his former England and Lions back-row team-mate Neil Back describing the current series with Australia as “the most one-sided tour”.
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Andy Farrell’s Lions took a 1-0 series lead against Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies in comfortable fashion last Saturday in Brisbane, and are firm favourites to wrap the series up with one match to spare this weekend at the MCG.
Dallaglio, who travelled to the home of the world champions in two of his three Lions tours (South Africa in 1997 and Australia in 2001), has not held back in his summary of what has been offered up to the Lions so far this year, with only Argentina earning a victory, who were actually ranked three places above Australia at the time.
The former England captain was joined by his 2003 World Cup-winning team-mates Lewis Moody and Back, who were all 2005 Lions, on the Stick to Rugby podcast this week, where he gave his assessment of the current series.
“The Lions is supposed to be the pinnacle of your career, which it is, but it’s also the pinnacle of your career because you’re playing against one of the hardest opponents you’ve ever played against in your life,” the former No.8 said.
“I think this is the first time that the Lions have gone down to the southern hemisphere as overwhelming favourites. Every game that we’ve watched, apart from Argentina, has been so easy. You go into this Test series and it wasn’t a question of ‘will the Lions win?’ It was a question of ‘we’re going to win, it just depends on how much’.
“Australia seem to be in a cycle at the minute where they’re not just poor, they’re ranked sixth but they’re playing like they’re ranked eighth or tenth in the world at the minute.”
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Moody had a simple solution to this, where the Lions series is not set in stone, but rather earned.
“I’d be a massive advocate of having France, Argentina, other options,” the former flanker said. “It’s not just every four years you’re at this place, this place, but actually there’s some sort of ranking system that we use to put it in place. Then you’re taking on genuinely one of the best teams in the world.”
Dallaglio added: “You’d have to say that playing a tour in France, against their club teams in the south and then maybe a three or four-Test series against the French, that would be one for the ages.
Back agreed that the Lions taking on France would be “amazing,” but had some reservations about a potential series against Les Bleus. Moreover, he feels the current situation may only be a “blip”.
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“This has been the most one-sided tour,” he said. “This isn’t how it normally is. Because it has happened once in 12 years, can Australia get back to being a really competitive team? Then we won’t see that. Because at the moment, South Africa and New Zealand are.
“Without question, going to France would be brilliant because for Lions supporters it’s so accessible, but the downside to that would be, would people hoick the prices up?
“I would say this is just a blip, but if it happens, I would be behind it because touring France would be amazing, playing against France at the moment is a tough ask, and that’s what you want.”