Why British & Irish Lions loss to Argentina is bad news for the Wallabies ahead of series
Anyone gullible enough to write off the British and Irish Lions after the shock loss to Argentina hasn’t grasped the enormity of the challenge Australian rugby faces, writes JULIAN LINDEN. IN fact, the Pumas may have hurt the Wallabies’ hopes of a boilover.
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Anyone gullible enough to write off the British and Irish Lions after their mistake-riddled and underwhelming warm-up loss to Argentina on the weekend probably hasn’t grasped the enormity of the challenge Australian rugby is facing over the next six weeks.
While the prima facie evidence suggests the 2025 Lions appear more like pussycats than the kings of the jungle that previous squads saw themselves as, the humbling 28-24 defeat against the Pumas doesn’t alter the fact they will still start as heavy favourites to beat a Wallabies team that has hardly set the world alight.
If anything, Argentina may have unwittingly harmed Australia’s hopes of a boilover by reminding the Lions why they can’t afford to underestimate any southern hemisphere opponents, not just New Zealand and South Africa.
How else do you explain the complete disdain that British bookies showed towards the Pumas by listing them as 17–point outsiders?
No-one should be surprised though, especially given the Lions’ historical indifference to Argentina and Australia, although neither has complained out loud because they’ve benefitted from being dismissed as the underdog.
READ MORE: ‘No one could believe it’: Lions loss that sparked a Wallabies dynasty
While they have always revered the All Blacks and the Springboks, the Lions didn’t see fit to even undertake a standalone tour of Australia for 90 years - from 1899 to 1989 - while the last time they granted the Pumas a match in Argentina was way back in 1936.
The weekend fixture was a money-making exercise held in Dublin, which represented their first meeting anywhere in two decades.
Yet, shamefully, the Lions made five separate tours of South Africa during the apartheid era, ignoring all the protests and condemnation of the time.
With the Wallabies currently ranked eighth in the world, behind three of the four countries that make up the Lions, no-one north of the Equator is giving the Australians any real hope of winning the three-Test series.
On the contrary, bookies were offering shorter odds on the Lions going through the entire tour unbeaten than the Wallabies spring an upset.
Well, the undefeated tour is already off the table, even before the Lions boarded their plane to Australia, but that won’t necessarily help the Wallabies’ cause when the Tests roll around.
When it comes to blowing their own trumpet, the Lions are the Louis Armstrong’s of world rugby, and while self-confidence is an admirable trait, the wake-up loss to Argentina will almost certainly do the tourists more good than bad.
If nothing else, it should remove any risk of complacency and refocus the squad’s attention firmly on the three Tests, while giving Lions coach Andy Farrell a headstart on the areas he needs to fix, which are plentiful.
The obvious disadvantage Lions teams face when they assemble every four years is building cohesion between a squad of players representing four different countries - England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland - and increasingly beefed up by more and more Aussies, Kiwis and South African expats who have switched allegiances.
The reality is that it does take time to find the best combinations but with five more matches to play before the opening Test in Brisbane on July 19, time is one thing the Lions have plenty of.
On top of that, the Lions’ team that took the field at Aviva Stadium against the Pumas was not their best lineup, with a number of key players rested.
Yet, they still almost won the game right at the death, and there’s also a valid argument that the Argentinians might present a sterner challenge than Joe Schmidt’s struggling Australian outfit.
Semi-finalists at the last World Cup, the Pumas are currently ranked three places higher than the Wallabies and humiliated Schmidt’s men with a record 67-27 thumping less than 10 months ago.
If the Wallabies can somehow win the series, it will rank as one of their greatest achievements, but the Lions’ pride has been dented so their roar will only get louder.
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