LONG READ Why Henry Pollock's x-factor could earn him a Lions Test start

Five tour matches, five comfortable wins. Only 53 points conceded at an average of fewer than 11 points per game; the most definitive performance of all occurring in a 48-0 shutout of the AUNZ Invitational XV at the weekend. There is a growing suspicion the tour organisers have got this one wrong: it should be the British and Lions on the highlight tour to New Zealand, and France B on the minor league circuit in Aussie.

That may be a pipe dream, but then the phoney war in Australia has just jumped to a whole new level after events at the Adelaide Oval. With the Invitational XV’s big fat nil still fresh in the memory, the weaponisation of the Lions defence is a worry for Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies.

It was left to ex-Australia centre Morgan Turinui to hammer the message home from his media soapbox on Stan Sport.

“This is the harsh truth about the Lions in 2025,” he said. “They are offside all the time at ruck time.

“If you’re the Wallabies, you cannot wait for an assistant referee to intervene. You must win contacts clean, with one metre of depth to have a good offside line. And [to] generate fast ball, fast ball, you must be brutal and violent at cleanout at the breakdown.

“This Test series will be won and lost, in my opinion, at the breakdown, in that collision, and one who can show the right pictures to the referee to get a little bit of the rub of the green there as well.”

First it is the responsibility of the officiating crew to check the Lions’ line-speed and give the Wallabies a free pass: a good one metre of depth and a bit of breathing space from the rush. Then the message modulates more subtly and sensibly into a demand for a more aggressive cleanout attitude from the home team, and showing the “right pictures to the referee” at ruck time.

Turinui’s comments did have one virtue. They inadvertently drew attention to Andy Farrell’s key selection area ahead of the first Test in Brisbane. The combination of bustling Ben Earl at No. 8, with youthful X-factor winner Henry Pollock on one flank and indestructible Welsh tank Jac Morgan on the other, was able to deliver easily the most cohesive and effective back-row performance of the tour so far. It was head and shoulders above everything that has preceded it.

It also raised the question of whether senior ‘Faz’ has the will to push his chips all-in on Pollock as a starter in the Test series, rather than just viewing him as game-changer off the bench. The Lions have the option of picking two or even three natural number sevens in their starting back-row at the Suncorp, and this is how the key stats of the main contenders before the game in Adelaide compared.

Leinsterman Josh van der Flier has the best record in terms of defensive work rate, but the figures suggest the premier all-round pair could be Morgan and Pollock. With young Henry also able to win some lineout ball, the choice at eight boils down to one of either Earl and Jack Conan. Earl currently has the edge as a ball carrier, with 19 carries for 117m on average per game, and 3 clean breaks and 11 tackle busts – compared to the Leinsterman’s 13-81m, with no clean breaks and five tackle busts.

Hitherto, the Lions have inclined towards the comfort blanket of a big hybrid second/back-rower at six to bolster their lineout – typically either Leicester’s Ollie Chessum or Munsterman Tadhg Beirne – but the game against the AUNZ XV hinted that might not be obligatory. The Lions won 18 of their 20 lineout throws with a nice spread of wins between the starters [five for James Ryan, three apiece for Beirne and Pollock].

The bonuses on attack and defence are too good to ignore. Between them, Morgan, Pollock and Earl combined for 28 carries for 122m with two clean breaks and six tackle busts on attack, and contributed 35 tackles and one breakdown pilfer on defence. The trio looked and played as a unit, and their mobility and field coverage would suit the likely selection of an all-Scotland midfield [in the absence of an injured Garry Ringrose] for the Test at Lang Park admirably. With Russell and Tuipulotu in your team, you will inevitably spend a lot of time playing off 10 and 12.

The two front rows are cohesive national units and either trio could happily start the game. As La Rochelle supremo Ronan O’Gara highlighted when picking his own Lions 23 on Sky Sports:

“I don’t know [English props] Will Stuart and Ellis Genge particularly well, but as players they look very, very impressive.

“Andy Farrell won’t go with this, but when you look into someone’s eyes in a Test game after 43 minutes and you see Dan Sheehan come on – imagine what that does to the opposition?

“Imagine the loose-head seeing Furlong after 42 minutes. Imagine the tight-head seeing Porter.

“Imagine you’ve got Ben Earl carrying the ball. You’ve just got to make sure you know what the role of the starters is when you’ve got a 6-2 split.”

There is a built-in lineout safety valve with a top-drawer thrower [Jamie George] and his England caller [Maro Itoje] potentially paired together, and two big hybrids [Chessum and Beirne] to come off a 6-2 bench. The Lions can even emulate England and shift Ben Earl to 12 while adding yet another seven [Van der Flier] to the mix in the last half hour.

It was in defence the Lions really made their presence felt, and their ability to blanket the width of the field with three natural number sevens was extremely impressive. The tone was set in the opening minute with a turnover engineered by Morgan and Pollock.

Pollock and Morgan start at second and third defender out from the ruck, but after three passes they are already opposite the play, with the Welshman making a punishing tackle and the youngster feasting on the scraps.

The Invitational XV had picked a much bigger back row featuring Pete Samu at seven, and when the ball went wide there was only one winner.

After the kick goes through down the Lions’ left, Samu is up on chase but all three of the Lions’s breakaways have added themselves to the recovery ruck on Hugo Keenan within a couple of seconds.

That naked speed also created turnovers on chase.

There is a chance for Marika Koroibete to run the ball back from a kick, but the speed of the upfield chase from Pollock and Earl forces the big Fijian back into the unforgiving jaws of Beirne in the blue hat.

Whenever the Invitational side made the second pass on attack, they found themselves running into a veritable hail of Lions’ back-row activity.

First Pollock hassles the ANZAC cleanout support relentlessly around the ruck perimeter, then Earl jumps out on the other side of the field to set up yet another turnover for Beirne.

There were also some definite signposts towards what the trio might be capable of achieving on attack.

Morgan rips the ball off David Havili quite unceremoniously and Earl and Pollock move the ball out swiftly to the left for scrum-half Ben White to score a disallowed try, in which Pollock’s final flat pass was rather mysteriously called forward.

In a recent column for The Guardian, Lions’ supporter Luke McLaughlin revisited his memories of the Lions’ tour 24 years ago:

“As an English cricket fan, I was accustomed to Australia’s Ashes tourists being received by largely upbeat media coverage, a smattering of polite applause, perhaps even a word or two of encouragement.

I was taken aback by the Australian media’s tactics as defeat [after the first Test] loomed into view. As far as they were concerned this was all-out war. Journalists saw themselves as the Wallabies’ 16th man, and every opportunity to take a potshot at the tourists was enthusiastically seized.”

While the Lions did a pretty good job of shooting themselves in both feet with their own media involvements on that 2001 tour, the latest comments from Turinui illustrate the pith of the Australian media response, closing ranks with the Wallabies under pressure in their own land. Now it is the tackle zone and defensive offsides, tomorrow it could be something else. The pith can be bitter, and the tourists may not like the taste.

The bold solution for Farrell at the Suncorp would be to pick three natural sevens in his starting back row. The balance of the unit against the AUNZ team hit the sweetest spot of the tour so far. If the Lions can get away with picking Pollock at six in the lineout, their swarming D could suffocate the Wallabies at Wally Lewis’ old stomping ground. Audentes Fortuna iuvat.