Suncorp faithful must step up - for my sake

I HAVE only ever saved one try for Australia and given that it was in a Test against the Lions in Brisbane, I'm feeling a little nostalgic.

I HAVE only ever saved one try for Australia and given that it was in a Test against the British and Irish Lions in Brisbane, I'm understandably feeling a little nostalgic today.

Steady now. I am acutely, indeed miserably, aware that while there have been 10 Smiths play rugby for Australia, there is not a "Wayne Smith" among them. So indulge me, please.

It was June 30, 2001 and although I was on a short break away from writing rugby, I purchased tickets for my son and me for the Gabba Test where, seemingly, we were the only Australians in attendance.

It was meant to be a father-son bonding experience and armed with tickets with consecutive numbers we presented ourselves to an attendant who, with more glee than perhaps was necessary, pointed out that while my son's seat was on the end of one row, mine was some 20m away, at the start of the next row, just back from the fence and right on the tryline.

So our hideously expensive bonding experience was to consist mainly of feeble waves across the "sea of red" and elaborate, indecipherable hand signals.

It was the only Test match I have ever watched through furry windscreen-wipers. Well, that's how it seemed. The huge gentleman in front of me had come armed with a stuffed animal, which he then proceeded to wave backwards and forwards in my face for the entire 80 minutes, all the while chanting "Lions ... Lions". It was the only time I have ever found myself yearning for the hushed sterility of the press box.

Anyway, to get to my heroics. Right from the moment Jason Robinson beat Chris Latham for pace, seemingly not knowing until years later how truly astonishing a feat that was, the Lions were in the ascendancy. A player in red, Brian O'Driscoll perhaps, broke into the clear and headed for my corner, only to be pulled down about 5m out, 10 or so metres in from touch. The Wallabies scrambled back, pouring bodies into the breakdown, but my attention was drawn to Lions halfback Rob Howley who was screaming for the ball, never taking his eyes off the inviting, undefended blind side.

And so I started screaming "WALLABIES ... SHORT SIDE ... SHORT SIDE". How I was heard above the frenzied Lions chant all around me I'll never know, but at that moment Toutai Kefu popped his head out of the ruck, spotted the same hole Howley had been spying and arrived there just in time to snuff out the danger. I remember Kefu nodding vaguely in my direction by way of thanks, but probably only seeing a big fat bloke in a red shirt waving a silly stuffed lion over his head. Even so my chest still swells with pride at the memory.

It didn't make any difference, of course, because the Lions went on to win 29-13 but at least I was able to console myself with the thought that I had done all I could for the Wallabies cause.

Tonight, eight days short of a dozen years later, the Wallabies again need all the help they can get. Not from me, unfortunately, because I'll be closeted away in the press box where colleagues who know me all too well arrive equipped with yellow and red cards, which they periodically produce if I show signs of getting a little too caught up in the excitement.

But from the rest of you, especially when that "Lions ... Lions" chant gathers momentum. And that goes double if someone in the control console accidentally hits the wrong button and We Are Red starts booming from the public address speakers.

This is a particularly proud pride of Lions that Warren Gatland has assembled for this Test. Certainly they have every reason to be proud of the flowing rugby they have produced everywhere on tour, save of course for Canberra. Even allowing for the fact that the entertainment bar is set ridiculously low whenever non-French-speaking teams from the northern hemisphere come a'calling, these Lions have been a revelation. No one took Gatland seriously before the tour when he promised creative, open rugby, but so far he has been true to his word.

He'll be granted a dispensation to play a lot tighter tonight, of course, given the circumstances. If Bill Shorten called up Julia Gillard and invited her out for a coffee, there still would be less tension in the air than there will be tonight at Suncorp Stadium.

It will be worse for the Wallabies. If the Lions stuff up this series, they have only four years to wait before the next one, in New Zealand. But if the Australians get it wrong, they'll have Mike Phillips standing over them snarling, in his best George Gregan manner: "Twelve more years!"

It will be worst of all for Robbie Deans. Suncorp might be the Wallabies' favourite ground in all the world but it's right in the heart of Ewen McKenzie country.

There is generous and genuine recognition in Queensland for what Jake White has achieved with the Brumbies but the widespread belief in the Deep North is that the next Australian coach should be Australian and that means McKenzie. Interestingly, it wasn't possible to buy a ticket in the days before the Reds-Lions match, even though "only" 50,136 people actually used them, but as late as yesterday the ARU was still trying to move 500 Test tickets. A cashed-strapped ARU must surely have cause to pause to wonder what on earth is happening when more Queenslanders prefer to watch a Reds side denuded of its star players than a full-strength Deans-coached Wallabies playing a once-in-a-generation Test against the Lions.

Old suspicions die hard, evidently, because the side Deans has selected is equipped to play the expansive rugby Australians have been craving. That's not to say the Wallabies coach has caved in to public pressure. In fact, he seems impervious to it. If he has chosen Christian Lealiifano at inside centre it's not as a sop to the mob; it's because he believes he enhances the Wallabies' chances of winning.

Deans knows precisely what is riding on this series and credit to him because he isn't shirking from the consequences and is playing it his way.

Hopefully the Suncorp faithful will recognise that and fall right in behind him. Who knows, they might even help save a try or two.