Go all out or go home: soggy win simplifies Farrell's Test conundrum

With the first Test crucial against opponents likely to improve, head coach cannot afford a repeat of Saturday

- Robert Kitson

For some reason Dame Edna Everage sprang to mind in the wake of the British & Irish Lions' less-than-marvellous display against the NSW Waratahs on Saturday. As Edna once waspishly told a fellow grand dame: "I'm trying to find a word to describe your outfit... affordable." It was not dissimilar to the lacklustre Lions in Sydney: all dressed up and nowhere to hide.

It has been an awkward few days all round, with increasing amounts of potential comedic ammunition available to Aussie hecklers. "Mr Farrell, welcome to our hotel, we've held the family suite for you." "Mate, was the pitch really damp on Saturday or were you blokes just wallowing in your own mediocrity?" It is reaching the point where the Lions need to start delivering a few short, sharp punchlines of their own.

"Maybe we should play Fiji instead?" was briefly a possibility as the Wallabies hovered on the brink of losing their warm-up Test. But it is a dangerous game to play when, self-evidently, there continues to be a risk of the Lions rocking up underdone to Brisbane for the first Test on Saturday week. Australia may not be the best team in the world - they went into the weekend ranked eighth - but where does that leave the Lions if the series heads south?

Among other things, it makes the first Test absolutely pivotal. This is not a hard and fast law - in 2021 the Lions won the opening Test in South Africa only to go on and lose the series - but we should expect Joe Schmidt's Australia to grow stronger over the course of the three Tests.