There were shameful moments but this is what I’ll cherish from Lions tour

On the long journey home from Australia, many of those who represented the British & Irish Lions will have the time to reflect on the experience they’ve been through. The disappointment of the third-Test performance will subside and the joy of winning the series will morph into something closer to satisfaction, tinged perhaps with relief.

It would be unfair to say the Lions were lucky, but the honest among them will know this could easily have gone the other way. Before the first Test in Brisbane, the consensus view was that the Lions were better than Australia. The second and third Tests have challenged that view. Drawn as always to the uniqueness of the Lions I willed them to win in style, as they did in the third Test against Australia 12 years ago. They weren’t able to do that this time.

Still, they got it done. History will be kind to them; as it is to every Lions team that wins. My first experience of a Lions tour happened in 1989. ­Australia had a decent side then and the Lions did well to win the series after being comprehensively beaten in the first Test. Walking from the Sydney Football Stadium after that 30-12 loss, I gave the Lions zero chance of turning it around.

Itoje, left, seen celebrating with Morgan, was one of four players to suffer a head injury during the game in Sydney DAVID ROGERS/GETTY IMAGES

There are things you may not remember about the third Test in 1989 and the Lions’ 19-18 victory. Ieuan Evans scored his team’s only try and coming 20 minutes from the end, you could say it decided the outcome. In Lions’ history, it may well have been single worst try ever scored by a player in the red jersey.

After a Rob Andrew dropped-goal attempt floated wide, David Campese decided to run the ball from behind his own line. Campese moved towards Evans without drawing him and then threw a horrible pass to Greg Martin, who could only paw the ball backwards. Evans moved sharply and dived to ground it before the Australia full back could get his hand to it.

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The Australia TV commentator wasn’t impressed: “You don’t do this on your own line, you don’t wear the green-and-gold jersey to pull out that sort of Mickey Mouse rugby.” That seemed unfair on Mickey Mouse, though Campese went onto become one of the truly great players.

To their credit, the 2025 Lions won the series with an outstanding last-play try in the second Test. It was, by some distance, the best attacking sequence in their short existence as a team. There are two individual contributions to that score that I hope to recall for as long as my memory survives. Allow me to explain this.

More than most sports, rugby finds and exposes a player’s inner self. The willingness to do stuff that goes unnoticed and often unrewarded. “He never went into a ruck that he didn’t need to be in,” Jonny Wilkinson once said of the great flanker Richard Hill. The last attacking play in Melbourne featured a good Finn Russell pass that allowed Will Stuart to go steaming through a gap near halfway.

As Ryan received treatment, it wasn’t really a time for scuffles and Sweet Caroline DAVID GRAY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

After Stuart took play inside Australian territory, the Lions went left and made more ground. Then Russell could see there was space on the right. He made a half-break and threw an overhead pass to Blair Kinghorn. This was promising as the Scotland player had Jac Morgan and Hugo Keenan to his right.

Kinghorn was tackled by Tom ­Lynagh and a fraction of a second later, Tate McDermott is thinking he may be about to turn over possession but is immediately smashed backwards by Morgan. Keenan is the next man into the ruck and helps to secure possession. The Lions go back left; Tadhg Beirne charges forward, Len Ikitau goes for the turnover but he is driven off the ball by Owen Farrell.

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What is remarkable about this sequence is how quickly Morgan and Keenan get back to their feet after the ruck in the right corner flag. Though they have to be momentarily exhausted, they’re running to get back in position. After the Beirne surge, Russell is caught behind the gainline and slips a pass to James Ryan, who makes five yards before he’s tackled. This time Carlo Tizzano goes for the turnover and would have got it had Morgan not been so alert in seeing what needed to be done, and so precise in his execution.

The clean-out on Tizzano came nine or ten seconds after the clean-out on McDermott. In those two plays we saw the essence of what is in Morgan’s rugby soul. A selfless team-mate.

Much the same can be said for Keenan. When all the bodies disengaged from the ruck near the right corner, Keenan was second from bottom. In his head he was running away to the left before he got fully upright and seeing how short of numbers the Lions were on the left, he kept going until he got there.

Earl, the replacement, goes on the attack to remind us of the pace and incisiveness that had been lacking for the Lions DAVID ROGERS/GETTY IMAGES

It took him 12 or 13 seconds to get from that ruck, run across the pitch and score, not that far from the left corner. For his heart and his willingness to work, Keenan got the greatest try of his career.

There could not have been a better way to win a Test series.

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There are some aspects to the final Test that are concerning. Two Lions, the captain, Maro Itoje, and Tommy Freeman, and Australia’s Lynagh, were involved in collisions that necessitated head injury assessments, which all three failed. The Lions lock James Ryan also lost consciousness after getting his head in a bad place while tackling Will Skelton and he too had to be replaced. Four players suffering brain injuries in one game is too many. Especially as Lynagh’s injury might have been avoidable had the Lions hooker Dan Sheehan exercised more care in the clean-out that resulted in the fly half’s injury.

Perhaps the single most dispiriting moment came after Ryan was knocked out. His team-mate Andrew Porter pulled Skelton away as the Australia player expressed concern and then, for a few moments, various players jostled aggressively while one of their number lay motionless on the grass. It was a terrible scene made even worse by the stadium DJ then deciding it was time for Sweet Caroline. What planet do these folk come from?

Ryan was up and about afterwards, which was good to see. The blow he suffered is referred to as “a rugby ­incident” — that is, an injury that is nobody’s fault. Simply a consequence of playing the game.

In Ryan’s case, his ability to tackle low and forcefully probably got him into the team in the first place. Sixty-seven minutes into the second Test and in the space of six seconds he made two such tackles on the Australia No8 Harry Wilson that helped to turn the game the Lions’ way. To tackle as Ryan does, a player needs to be brave and technically precise. Against Skelton, Ryan got his technique wrong and paid a big price.

I don’t want to remember the number of players fighting as he lay unconscious or Sweet Caroline blaring as he was being treated. Instead I will cherish Ben Earl leaving his place among the replacements and getting down to the side of the pitch to wish Morgan well as he entered the match.

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When Earl belatedly got his chance, we were reminded of the pace and incisiveness in attack that the Lions lacked in their final game.

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