If Australian rugby is to take a key learning from the British & Irish Lions tour and adopt a credo for the upcoming Rugby Championship and the road to the 2027 World Cup, Will Skelton nailed it at half-time on Saturday: “We don’t take no itshay.”
The 203cm, 145kg colossus’s performance was as big as he was in the Wallabies’ stirring victory in Sydney. But Skelton’s fighting words to his team – “Keep fighting. Keep fighting for each other. Keep fighting for the jersey” – and the pig Latin catchcry that followed was a crudity that offered perfect clarity to Joe Schmidt’s team.
