Why this Lions series needs Australia to win first Test

One can hardly recall a more muted buildup to a British and Irish Lions series, even the usual pre-Test tedium of a phoney war of words failing to erupt into anything resembling a conflict.

- HARRY LATHAM-COYLE

About the closest we've come to a controversy in these pre-Test weeks has been when Joe Schmidt made a slightly clumsy comment about the origin of the Lions' selected centres for the defeat to Argentina - a remark immediately rowed back and apologised for by Australia's head coach.

It is not to say that the Lions and Wallabies will be anything other than the fiercest of foes when they take to the turf of Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium, but the flames of rivalry have hardly been flickering in the days before this first Test. Both Lions boss Andy Farrell and counterpart Schmidt were given the opportunity to stoke the fires two days out from matchday and each declined, presenting a straight bat. Indeed, Schmidt almost seemed to take on a deferential tone when discussing the tourists. “I'd like to think we can put a game together that at least can keep the British and Irish Lions pretty honest on the day,” the Wallabies boss almost muttered. They call Suncorp Stadium “The Cauldron”, but the pot is yet to bubble, let alone boil.

Even the more outlandish declarations have been founded in something like fact. Henry Pollock, the British and Irish Lions' youngest cub, is used to causing a stir and looked initially to have done so last weekend when he declared the tourists' ambition to be remembered as the best Lions team ever by beating the Wallabies 3-0. Now the 20-year-old Pollock, whose first proper Lions memories are somewhat depressingly drawn from the 2017 trip to New Zealand, is perhaps not best placed to assess the current crop's place in history, and the achievements of unbeaten 1974 tourists in South Africa will surely not be surpassed, but a first Wallabies whitewash since 1904 may be on the cards.