'Not ideal, to be starting your first Test match against the Lions'

Joe Schmidt thinks Tom Lynagh is a chip off the old block, but the Wallabies coach won’t know for sure until the first British and Irish Lions Test is run and won in Brisbane.

The 22-year-old Lynagh boasts just three appearances off the bench for Australia.

The Queensland Reds playmaker will wear the Wallabies’ No.10 for the first time on Saturday.

Schmidt revealed that twice last year niggling injuries had thwarted attempts to start the son of World Cup-winning flyhalf Michael.

And a broken hand meant he didn’t feature against Fiji this month.

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Noah Lolesio’s neck injury in that game then created an opening for a starting debut on the grandest of stages.

“Not ideal, to be starting your first Test match against the Lions,” a wry Schmidt said ahead of the Suncorp Stadium opener.

“You have to start somewhere, and if not now, when? So now’s good.”

The blockbuster, once-in-12-year Australian tour returns with the Wallabies intent on regaining respect after a historically poor 2023 World Cup.

The Lions have won five lead-in games since arriving late last month and have ambitions to notch a rare 3-0 sweep of a series that’s been neck-and-neck in their three previous visits.

Schmidt knows he’s put Lynagh on the spot, but reckons the composure required is in his blood.

“When you haven’t seen someone at the level, haven’t been put under the pressure that’s going to come, you’re not quite sure how things are going to work out,” he said.

“Whatever does get thrown at Tom, I’m confident he’ll cope and learn from the occasion, and it may be that he has to learn quickly.”

The selection is a historic one, with the Lynaghs set to become the first father and son to play for the Wallabies against the Lions.

Michael pulled the strings in 1989 and won a World Cup in a decorated 72-Test career that included 15 as captain.

“You wouldn’t think he’s necessarily designed to run a game and dictate what’s happening,” Schmidt said of his understated puppet master.

“He does have a quiet confidence that gives us a quiet confidence.

“(Good) kicking game … good acceleration, and he’s incredibly brave, to a fault.

“I always felt Michael had a quiet control of games and calmness about the way he ran the game, and I do think there’s a bit of that in Tom.”

Adding to the intrigue is that Jake Gordon, not his Reds teammate Tate McDermott, will wear the No.9.

Schmidt said it was a tight call to start the Waratahs scrumhalf ahead of the Reds captain.

He reasoned that Gordon offered a veteran presence around set pieces, and returning from a hamstring niggle would be easier if he started, rather than warmed the bench.

“Limited, but we’ve spent a lot of time together training,” Gordon said of their rookie partnership.

“The luxury is he has such a good skill set, is really calm under pressure.”

Reds teammate and back-row star Fraser McReight has seen Lynagh develop rapidly since he arrived at Ballymore, fresh out of high school from the UK, in 2021.

“Very calm, the quiet confidence, and you know he’s going to do the hard yakka, put his head in dark places,” McReight said of the Italian-born talent.

“First start, at home, a few decades after his old man … it shows how far he’s come.”