‘I always loved rugby growing up but it just elevated to a whole other level’: former Australian captain John Eales
Is this Australian rugby’s new dawn? Wallabies captains, including John Eales, open up on the power of a British & Irish Lions tour and what they hope happens next for the code.
John Eales remembers watching every minute of the 1989 Lions tour and gathering around the television with his Brothers Colts team mates to watch the Test in Sydney. Eales, then 19, was struck by the Wallabies belting out the national anthem in front of the crowd.
“That moment grabbed me,” Eales said. “I thought; ‘how good would it be to be that person in that jersey?’ Never believing you’d ever get that chance to do it … how big an international occasion it was.”
“I remember watching every minute of that series. I always loved rugby growing up but it just elevated to a whole other level.”
Eales would go on not only to captain the Wallabies to World Cup and Bledisloe victories but even to an iconic win over the Lions in 2001, where he turned out yet another brilliant performance in the jersey, besting rival lock and skipper Martin Johnson.
Our most successful Wallabies captain believes this 2025 series has the potential to be a turning point for Australian rugby on and off the field – as well as sparking the rugby dreams of the next generation.
“You know, when I was growing up in Brisbane, more kids were playing rugby league than rugby union, but rugby offered something different and rugby still offers something different,” he said.
“Right now, we are going to showcase some of that difference.
“It has always been there, but I think there’s been this negative sentiment around the game in some ways that has ignored some of the great positives. I think that’s been probably a difficult thing for players to deal with in a lot of respects, so now I think there’s an opportunity for them to feel ‘wow’, you know our game is going to be showcased in such a great way.
“And following the British & Irish Lions, we head to the men’s World Cup in 2027, then the women’s in ’29 and the Olympics in 2032; it is a chance to show how special a game rugby is.”
Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh is also optimistic about the Wallabies on the field, though is cautious about putting down an exact marker when asked what success against the Lions would look like – other than an unlikely 3-0 thumping in favour of Australia.
“I think we have seen some green shoots coming through particularly with Joe Schmidt’s leadership of the Wallaby environment and the progress they made last year. It was very pleasing to go to Europe and beat England, put 50 points on Wales in Cardiff and push the Irish [before losing]. What came through is the guys believing they can perform at the highest level,” Waugh said.
“As for success … I don’t necessarily want to anchor what success is or measure it on win/loss records. A measure of success is going to be around the attractiveness of the game and product, re-engagement with the code and the continued growth of interest in the game.”
James O’Connor, the veteran fly-half who is sitting just on the periphery of the Wallabies squad hoping for a “second chance”, believes this series could be transformative for the team – if they do well.
“I think it’s just a springboard, like if we do well against the Lions, we’re putting ourselves straight back on the map,” O’Connor said.
“Obviously, we’ve started like seventh, eighth, in the world, whereas in the past we’ve been ranked 1, 2 or 3, so I think playing the Lions is almost like a line-in-the-sand statement; ‘like Aussie rugby, we’re back and we’re here to stay’.”
O’Connor, at 34, is well aware of the state of the game in Australia and what a successful Lions tour here will mean to the code off the field.
“With more money coming in then we can build on the grassroots,” he said. “The more successful the Wallabies are, it floods down to club rugby, to the juniors, more kids want to play because more kids are watching … I know as a kid, you want to follow the teams that are winning … so for us to do well, that would be huge.”
James Horwill, who captained the Wallabies when the Lions last toured 12 years ago, understands first hand the immense attention the series can bring. He remembers the “sea of red” on the city streets and in the stands.
“There’s an insatiable appetite from the northern hemisphere to get down here for it,” Horwill said.
Back in 2013, Horwill was embroiled in on-field drama, cited twice, and cleared twice, by World Rugby over allegations he stamped on the head of Lion Alun Wyn Jones. Horwill maintained it was a complete accident.
The Australian lock went through two tough hearings, after the then International Rugby Board’s decision to challenge the original judgment by the independent judicial officer, but Horwill handled it all with a calm steadiness in the middle of a firestorm of global attention.
“It wasn’t fun but it was the process that let it down, it just didn’t need to be as drawn out and over the top when you look back at it, it could have been resolved and moved on.
“It’s intense (the tour),” Horwill said. “You know you go to a World Cup, there’s 15 to 20 storylines, but with the Lions there’s that narrow focus … there’s only two teams to talk about … there’s nothing else that they want to cover.”
Horwill, who is now on the Queensland Reds board, has fond memories of the last series “until the third test” where Australia’s hearts were broken and the Lions claimed the tour 2-1.
But Horwill knows how powerful this event can be for the game they play in heaven. “I look at it from the broader lens, and that is, what it did for rugby at the time, I distinctly remember everyone was talking about the Lions,” Horwill said.
“It was on the front page, the back page – I think we’re behind AFL and rugby league in terms of winter football codes by some significant margin but for that period of time, they took a back seat.
“For the sport as a whole, this series is such a great thing. We just need to be able to make sure that things are set up so that we can leverage that moving forward.”
Horwill said the code “hasn’t made any secret” of wanting to springboard off this tour as much as possible to get back to a stronger financial position – as well as winning again on the field.
“Ultimately, the contest is the most important part, and to make sure the Wallabies can put in a performance that sort of allows us to build that momentum, because we know what is coming up; a home World Cup,” Horwill said.
“It’s a window that as a code we need to maximise as much as possible. Phil and Herbie (Daniel Herbert) have been very clear that is what they need to do. You have to credit them for that, they’re very clear on what the game plan is.”
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