LONG READ 'The Wallabies only have themselves to blame': How the Lions sunk Australia in Melbourne

Only now, three days after the event, the embers are dying down and sanity is starting to find its voice again. A raging wildfire had been stoked by Jac Morgan’s last-minute cleanout on Carlo Tizzano in the second Test in Melbourne. It was an act of social media arson and it made referee Andre Piardi and his officiating crew the topic of the rugby debate, rather than its natural mediators.

It was also an unwelcome repetition of the last British & Irish Lions tour in 2021, where Australian Nic Berry was pilloried by Springboks head coach ‘Rassie’ Erasmus after refereeing decisions in the first Test did not flow in South Africa’s favour. Rassie produced a 62-minute video featuring 26 decisions by Berry after the defeat in Cape Town, and social media did the rest. The whole ‘house’ of the tour very nearly burned down in that one action.

Berry is now among the top half-dozen officials on planet rugby, but at the time the Queenslander felt he might never be offered a top-level appointment again. An 80-page written judgement from World Rugby included his comments:

“I understand that our performances will be heavily scrutinised, especially in such a prestigious tournament. However, the public attack on my integrity and character is not something that should be tolerated in any workplace.

“I have spent many years trying to build my reputation as an international referee, and in the course of his video, which was posted online, Mr. Erasmus has caused it immeasurable damage.”

Although Rassie subsequently apologised, it set an unpleasant precedent for the ‘soccerization’ of the sport of rugby. In professional football, the stakes are high and referees all too often become the target of virulent criticism after the game.

Only a couple of years later, Englishman Wayne Barnes received death threats after sending off New Zealand skipper Sam Cane in the 28^th minute of the World Cup final against Rassie’s Boks. His wife Polly, co-founder of the Women’s Rugby Association, wrote on social media: “See ya later Rugby World Cup. Won’t miss you, or the death threats.” Mrs. Barnes described the atmosphere at the Stade de France succinctly as ‘vile’.

Two months before the Rugby World Cup in France began, UEFA head of referees Roberto Rosetti had led a PowerPoint presentation with one single message: “We need referees.” One in seven registered match officials quit the game every year. While European soccer is in a boom phase, with ever-increasing numbers of teams and leagues both in the men’s and women’s game, UEFA’s member associations are in a black hole, lacking the 40,000 referees they need.

Without respect for referees before, during and after a match, there is no glue to the game. As much as the players and the coaches, match officials are true custodians of the torch the sport hands on from one generation to the next.

Referees regularly experience verbal and sometimes physical abuse, either in person or online, and there is a powerful trickle-down effect to the lower levels of the game. Roma head coach Jose Mourinho’s haranguing of Anthony Taylor in the car park of the Puskas Arena in Budapest after his team lost a Europa League final was just one obvious ‘professional’ explosion in a simmering, volcanic landscape. The bitter irony of Mourinho’s comments immediately after the game was impossible to ignore: “I told my players you can lose a match but never your dignity. We lost today but we did not lose our dignity.”

Player welfare runs hand in hand with referee welfare, and the two fit together like hand and glove. Without respect for referees before, during and after a match, there is no glue to the game. As much as the players and the coaches, match officials are true custodians of the torch the sport hands on from one generation to the next.

The media wrangle conveniently diverted attention away from the fact that although Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies lost the game on a refereeing judgement call, they lost the series because of blind spots in selection.

For 30 minutes at least, Australia ripped into the Lions and Schmidt looked like a tactical genius. Compare the essential carrying stats for a forward pack reinforced by Will Skelton and Bobby Valetini in Melbourne in the second graphic, to those from Brisbane in the first.

Schmidt was able to employ his ‘vertical axis’ attack far more effectively with Valetini and Skelton to the fore, and it did not compromise the lineout in the least. Geoff Parling’s wizardry in the backroom and on the coaching paddock enabled the green and gold set-piece to claim all 19 of their own throws, even with only one recognised target on the field in Nick Frost.

So far, so good. The Wallabies had established a very healthy 23-5 lead after half an hour, and that should have been enough for them to coast home without needing a last-minute bail-out from the referee. But they lost the last 50 minutes 24-3 and by four tries to nil, and it is there the post-match inquisition rightly begins.

At scrum time, reserve tight-head Tom Robertson was required to play all but one minute of the second half as the Wallaby set-piece effort was steadily dismantled, conceding three penalties and one free-kick in total.

Robertson is a battler rather than a quitter, but at 113kg he is also battling the odds as probably the smallest tight-head prop among any of the Tier One nations, and the tourists duly applied pressure straight down the seam between the Force veteran and his hooker. The Lions’ finisher in the same spot was 135kg man mountain Will Stuart and the contrast was brutal. Why was the season-best form Taniela Tupou displayed in the midweek game for the First Nations and Pasifika XV ignored? Could the ‘Tongan Thor’ not have provided that sorely-needed scrum insurance for half an hour off the pine? Melbourne was the opportunity to find out.

The other reason why Australia’s valiant initial effort fell apart was even more basic. The green and gold defence could not stop the visitors from scoring tries, five in all. The centre partnership of Len Ikitau and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii featured two players playing out of position, and both were exposed in defence.

In the first clip it takes the Lions six seconds to win the ball from the ruck and that is more than enough time for any defence to regroup and blast off the line on the next phase. But a simple pull-back ball to playmaking maestro Finn Russell still finds both Wallaby centres backing off in midfield and opening an inviting gap for Bundee Aki to exploit. Even on the scoring play further down the same sequence, the Wallabies have the numbers but Ikitau misses a one-on-one tackle on James Lowe.

Australia let the Lions run their attacking shapes without interference.

The defence is organised on first phase from lineout, but the first response from the centres when the ball leaves Russell’s hands is to give ground rather than take it, and Blair Kinghorn makes the task of fixing Sua’ali’i before running around him look altogether too easy.

The final straw floated down the river in the last minute of the match.

In the first clip, it is ‘only’ a four-second ruck delivery but JAS is sitting off, waiting for events to unfold in front of him, and Russell duly obliges by taking the space to create another mini-break for Kinghorn. In the second Tizzano gets bumped out of the ruck for the umpteenth time by Morgan, but Ikitau still has the opportunity to stop Keenan five metres out from the Wallaby goal-line. After making 13 carries, eight tackles and attending 23 combined rucks – leading the Australian backs in all those categories – it was probably a bridge too far. That is what happens when a player is operating out of position, in one of the most physically demanding spots on the field.

If Boxing MC Michael Buffer had been on the mic, he would have highlighted the 90,307 people present at the MCG, and the hundreds of thousands across the world, who finally got to watch a true gladiatorial contest, and two hours of compelling theatre which had been signally absent from the Lions’ visit to Australia. After rather too much range-finding and pawing with the jab, the tour waited until the penultimate round to erupt into a furious flurry of action. For most, it has been waiting rather too long.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the final act, and Morgan’s cleanout on Tizzano, Australia have only themselves to blame for losing the series with one game remaining. Schmidt may be a great coach and a game-winning tactician, but most judges at ringside will be scoring a 10-8 round against his selections in this series. The reluctance to pick players from overseas has cost Australia dear, on the field and off it. It took too long to get Skelton on the park, and the absence of Samu Kerevi left the Wallabies with an unbalanced and ill-wrought combination in the centres. The tale of the tape is Australia never got ready to rumble until it was far, far too late.