Don’t blame the referees for the Wallabies woes, blame the injuries

3 months ago 21

One of the incidents that led to the British and Irish Lions’ 28-24 loss to Argentina before they flew to Australia was a late penalty against No. 6/second-rower Tadhg Beirne for an infringement spotted by the TMO alone.

Just as it appeared the Lions were building up to a matchwinning try, Beirne was penalised by the TMO for a neck roll with about three minutes left, and Los Pumas managed to hang on.

It didn’t look particularly offensive - the Argentinians didn’t complain, and the player wasn’t hurt - but that was the call.

So, at some point you have to move on from these decisions lest they cloud the actual reasons why a game was won or lost.

The decision against Beirne didn’t cause the Lions to lose against Argentina: the absence of No. 9 Jamison Gibson-Park and Finn Russell were far more relevant to the result.

We have seen throughout this tour how there is a significant gap between that pair and the Lions’ next best, and you half-wonder if coach Andy Farrell would have really preferred to have taken young Ireland No. 10 Sam Prendergast on tour, given the apparent lack of faith in Fin Smith.

Rugby, at all levels, remains a game in which performance is profoundly affected by the availability of three or four key players, and where the Lions have had access to those key men, the Wallabies have not.

Rob Valetini, Will Skelton and Allan Alaalatoa have been on the field for 40 minutes together over the first two Tests, a damaging statistic that will remain intact due to Valetini and Alaalatoa being missing in Sydney on Saturday.

Rob Valetini won’t play in the Wallabies third Test due to injury.

Noah Lolesio didn’t even make it to the starting line, and for the avoidance of doubt about the Wallabies’ best No. 10 the Reds-Brumbies game in April needs to be rewatched, with Lolesio bossing Tom Lynagh.

Across the first two Tests, the Wallabies have actually won two halves of rugby and lost two halves, effectively sticking two fingers up to the doomsayers (including yours truly), and to do so without four of their most influential players does not point to gap between the Home Unions that is so large that cannot be closed within the next two years before the Rugby World Cup.

With Valetini, Skelton and Alaalatoa on the field, the Wallabies are leading the Lions 23-17 because they are fluent in the language of Test rugby. The sight of multiple Lions defenders being sat on their backsides is simply not one that the Wallabies can achieve without their big men in full fitness.

Injuries have also weaved their way into the story of the Wallabies’ campaign in less obvious ways. Take Lukhan Salakaia-Loto for example. The Reds enforcer is the “obvious” choice to bring some more steel into the Wallabies pack, and he will surely be included in the Rugby Championship squad.

But he played only seven games in Super Rugby Pacific, averaging 50 minutes a game, and none since early May against the Waratahs. He is another player in Australian rugby who can change the course of a game with a brutal carry, but the run of games he enjoyed against the Lions came too late.

When the Wallabies and Rugby Australia review this series, it will surely be imbued with a sense of frustration and regret that they simply couldn’t get their big men on the field for long enough against a Lions side that has yet to show it would be in top two in the coming Rugby Championship.

The flip side of this pain for Australia is that the closeness of the first two Tests have - apart from the first half in Brisbane - killed the most damaging narrative of the tour.

The argument that the Wallabies had become detached from the Home Unions, and were destined to float around No. 8 – No. 10 in the rankings as a sort of West Indies of world rugby, has unsteady legs.

Rugby in both locations has more in common than is acknowledged, and many of these Lions players will return home to clubs that are bleeding money, with a report out of the UK last week showing that England’s Premiership Rugby clubs lost £32 million ($66m) in last financial year.

On the field, the Wallabies return to the upper echelons of world rugby was always dependent first on whether they could bounce back from the 2023 Rugby World Cup and get above England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
With a fair wind between now and a Rugby World Cup, that does not seem so fanciful at all.

All nine matches of The British & Irish Lions Tour to Australia are live & on demand on Stan Sport, with Wallabies Tests in 4K. All Test matches live and free on Channel 9 & 9Now.

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