One can hardly recall a more muted build-up to a British and Irish Lions series, even the usual pre-Test tedium of a phoney war of words failing to erupt into anything resembling a conflict. About the closest we’ve come to a controversy in these pre-Test weeks has been when Joe Schmidt made a slightly clumsy comment about the origin of the Lions’ selected centres for the defeat to Argentina – a remark immediately rowed back and apologised for by the Australia head coach.
It is not to say that the Lions and Wallabies will be anything other than the fiercest of foes when they take to the turf of Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium, but the flames of rivalry have hardly been flickering in the days before this first Test. Both Lions boss Andy Farrell and counterpart Schmidt were given the opportunity to stoke the fires two days out from matchday and each declined, presenting a straight bat. Indeed, Schmidt almost seemed to take on a deferential tone when discussing the tourists. “I’d like to think we can put a game together that at least can keep the British and Irish Lions pretty honest on the day,” the Wallabies boss almost muttered. They call Suncorp Stadium “The Cauldron”, but the pot is yet to bubble, let alone boil.
