LONG READ Ben Kay: 'I've never seen a Lions team attack so well; Finn Russell is unplayable'

Rewind to the covid-disrupted season of 2020 and the Champions Cup final between Racing 92 and Exeter. All eyes were on Finn Russell, the puppeteer pulling the strings in a backline of Parisian Galacticos. He’d had a wonderful season, a huge role in the semi-final sinking of Saracens, and everyone was talking up his dazzling array of skills.

Five minutes into the second half, with the game in the balance, Russell launched a trademark looping pass off his right hand just outside the Racing 22. It was supposed to outflank the Chiefs defence and send Virimi Vakatawa barrelling into space. Instead, it was picked off by Jack Nowell, who put Henry Slade under the sticks. That try opened up a two-score lead Exeter would never relinquish. Racing’s quest for an elusive European star continued. They have yet to win the club game’s foremost prize.

To some detractors, Russell’s error proved a point. Too flaky. Too laid back. Too prone to risk-taking. Not the guy you want running the show in high-stakes rugby. ‘Yeah, that’s Finn, he might try something that just isn’t on.’

Five years on, those perceptions have been shattered. Russell is now a calculating treble winner with Bath and the Lions’ first-choice 10. And brilliant as he is, the fly-half is being made to look even better by the Lions’ use of one particular attacking shape.

In this common setup, the inside centre is first receiver and takes the ball to the line, with his midfield partner running a short, direct angle on his shoulder. Russell is the option out the back, with his blindside winger sweeping round to form a back-three arrowhead with the full-back and opposite wing in the wide channels.

This move is nothing revolutionary. It’s been around for ages – Gloucester have been using it for at least a decade – and the Lions have run it again and again. It’s been the genesis of almost all of their tries on tour. I’ve never seen a Lions team attack so well, and yet the fundamental basis is this one play, done so well it becomes near-undefendable. The Lions have always relied on flashes of individual brilliance – a touch of genius from Brian O’Driscoll or Jason Robinson – but this has been everyone operating in harmony. It’s been brilliant to see. And Russell is like the quarterback lurking in the pocket, protected by a ferocious offensive line.

The Lions have made this shape so deadly through the myriad options it creates and the time it gives Russell to pick his weapon.

The Lions have made this shape so deadly through the myriad options it creates and the time it gives Russell to pick his weapon. The move often fails when the 12 simply shovels the ball to his fly-half regardless of the situation, never really giving the defence pause for thought. Not with these Lions. By making live decisions and holding the ball until the last beat, Sione Tuipulotu and Bundee Aki are making defenders show their hand. Huw Jones and Garry Ringrose have made a glut of line breaks blasting on to the flat passes at the gain line. Owen Farrell, from the same structure, chipped over the top for Jamie Osborne to score against the First Nations Pasifika on Tuesday. Although it seemed off the cuff, that kick will be analysed all week by the Wallabies. ‘How do we cover that? We didn’t see that coming. If we cover it with someone, it removes another defensive option somewhere else.’

Russell can throw passes nobody else can – just as he did for Tuipulotu’s first-Test opener – and this basic shape gives him that extra fraction of a second to assess what’s in front of him. It’s as though he has more time than anyone else on the pitch, and it removes his natural weakness, which is throwing passes that aren’t on. He’s become almost unplayable. When individuals jump out to hit him, they simply expose holes elsewhere.

If the Wallabies can’t cope with Andy Farrell’s attacking alchemy, they’ve at least got to stall the supply of possession reaching Russell’s conjurer’s hands. A week ago, Australia lost almost every collision in the first half. Swap poor Tom Lynagh with Russell, and the rookie probably looks pretty good behind a Lions pack motoring forwards like a juggernaut. On his first Test start, everything his big men did was moving in reverse. There will at least be much more physicality in this Wallabies team with the additions of Will Skelton and Rob Valetini, and Langi Gleeson one of six forwards on the bench.

I was so disappointed with the Wallabies’ breakdown. The only times the Lions have looked stressed this tour were when the provincial sides made that breakdown a dogfight. Yet Australia didn’t go hard at all. They almost allowed the Lions to win the gain line, then nobody in green and gold tried to cheat, disrupt or slow the ball down. These flaws in the contact area are the very antithesis of what you’d expect from a Joe Schmidt team.

I’d like to see Australia adopt what I call the Leinster loophole: players hit the breakdown legally, but arrive towards one side of the ruck and then swing their legs round to interfere with the flow of quick ball. Leinster and Ireland have been doing it for years and nobody has really picked up on it. At the moment, the Lions scrum-halves are playing with cigars in their mouths, scooping up possession without any pressure. The momentum builds and Australia are unpicked by Farrell’s attack shape.

We expected to see more of Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i too. The Wallabies can’t have trained for him to feature as little as he did in Brisbane. He’s their golden boy; their lavish signing. The whole aura around him means he has to do something in the second Test because he did nothing in the first.

The rugby league mentality here is their stars make big shots. Their status and following are forged on lighting up rivals. Sua’ali’i having a quiet first Test will mean he wants to put in a mega shot; that will feel like his easiest route back into this series. But that leaves him vulnerable to jumping out of the line and doing exactly what Aki, starting ahead of the injured Tuipulotu, wants. Thirteen is the hardest spot on a rugby field to defend and if Sua’ali’i gets seduced by thoughts of smoking a Lion, he could leave the channels outside him unguarded. That is Russell’s dream scenario.

There’s a little symmetry between Russell and James O’Connor, who I was stunned Schmidt has again left out of the matchday squad, even with a six-two bench.

There’s a little symmetry between Russell and James O’Connor, who I was stunned Schmidt has again left out of the matchday squad, even with a six-two bench. This guy should have been an Australian hero, perhaps their greatest ever talent, and for various reasons it hasn’t panned out like that. He could still have been the Lions’ nemesis, the ageing gunslinger roused for one last job. Sometimes, there’s a slice of fate about Lions series. Morne Steyn, anyone?

Everything we love about Russell, we love about O’Connor. The 35-year-old’s season at the Crusaders had parallels with Russell’s at Bath. All those ‘what abouts’ which dogged Russell’s career have vanished. Maybe you can say the same about O’Connor; playing a closer’s role off the bench for one of the greatest teams with the greatest cultures. Had Schmidt backed him, O’Connor could have performed a similar role for the Wallabies. It feels like a missed opportunity.

The Lions brand is unique in that nobody, not even the touring fans, really want to see a 3-0 blowout. Jeopardy is paramount. This is supposed to be rugby’s ultimate, a white-hot crucible where everything is demanded of those chosen to wear the jersey; an arena where legends are forged and their deeds enshrined in folklore. It’s supposed to be the game’s toughest test, not mundane or perfunctory. Whisper it, but I’ve not spoken to any ex-Lion – and I’ve spoken to a lot out here – who doesn’t secretly want Australia to win on Saturday, and take the series to a decider. The Lions tour is the biggest thing in our sport and it can’t be a walkover.

All week, the Australians I’ve met have been talking up their chances. They’re convinced the second Test will be different than the first. They have demanded more niggle, more toughness, and feel they have the game to turn the tables. In reality, the eight-point defeat flattered them. The Lions could have been 30 up and out of sight early in the second half.

Russell has come a long way since the horrors of that Champions Cup final. He has the maturity to match his magic. And the Lions have found the perfect system to accentuate his skills. If the Wallabies can’t defend that shape, or at least find some way of slowing its possession, the sea of red will sweep through Melbourne.