Bring out the Lions’ inner tabbies
The concept of one country taking on four, of course, is innately unbalanced and so intensely compelling for a nation that loves to win, and often does at most games.
This series matters more than most. And the 40,000-odd (in every way) fans who have flown in from the old world to cheer on the men in red know it.
The series will get Australian rugby back in the black. It will be a measure of how far head coach Joe Schmidt has brought the Wallabies and lifted their confidence across the past year. And it will test his big, brave gamble on Nick Champion de Crespigny, 29 and the playmaking skills of Tom Lynagh, 22. We take heart that legendary Wallaby coach Rod Macqueen, whose team made tabbies of the Lions in 2001, when they fielded Jonny Wilkinson, is confident that his old team can do well.
They are on the way back, with the backing of millions of Australians.
China cannot change who we are
The Prime Minister must devote more time and effort to the US relationship. Regardless of Australia’s current warmer relationship with China, the latter’s strategic ambitions in Asia are fundamentally different from Australia’s view.
Energy transition that is becoming an end unto itself
High costs and inefficiency are the opposite of productivity. But there’s a growing danger that an overly ambitious net-zero transition will become the key performance indicator for government.
The Wallabies’ most loyal supporters know Saturday night’s encounter in the first Test against the British & Irish Lions at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium will be monumental. In nine series played since 1899, the Lions have won seven. Even in Australia’s glory days, when our champions who won the 1991 and 1999 World Cups were on the field, the combined might of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales often proved too much.