If Australian rugby is to take a key learning from the British and 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.”
Skelton’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.
By taking no shit from the Lions – showing aggression, attacking from every angle, hurting their enemy in mind and body – Australia rattled their opposition and won ascendancy. Unlike in Brisbane where they found fire only when 24-5 down, or Melbourne where they let the initiative slip when leading 23-5, the Wallabies this time showed the ruthless edge fans have waited so long for, leading for all 80 minutes.
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As they set their jaws for the flight to South Africa on Friday and twin litmus Tests against the world champions, Australia should be confident of upsetting rugby’s number one side. The Springboks have only lightly tuned up for this series with two cantered victories against Italy and one over Georgia. Conversely, the Wallabies are fit and full of fire after smashing the Lions and finding their mongrel mojo.
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The touring squad Schmidt names on Thursday must be as bold as his Sydney 23. He will be without his two first-pick outhalves, with young Tom Lynagh ruled out with another concussion after being illegally cleared out by Dan Sheehan in Sydney, and Noah Lolesio out for the season with a neck injury sustained in the Fiji Test in July. He may also lose his preferred scrumhalf Jake Gordon to the hamstring twinges that cost him an appearance in the third Test.
That means the axis of attack in South Africa will again fall to unfamiliar alchemies being forged in the Test furnace. Ben Donaldson will get his chance to start at number 10, after coming off the bench in Brisbane and Sydney, with veteran James O’Connor, 35, the likely wildcard. Nic White’s call to retire post-Sydney inspired his side but the little general might be needed for two last outings against the Springboks.
Vitally, Rob Valetini will tour. But it is Skelton’s name that must be first on the team sheet. Without him and Valetini in the Lions opener in Brisbane, Australia looked timid and tepid. Yet in every minute Skelton was on the field in the Tests that followed, the Wallabies were bossing the scoreboard.
Skelton neatly encapsulates the enigma of Australian rugby this past decade. Born in New Zealand to Samoan parents, he was raised in western Sydney and played rugby league for most of his early years before finding union in his mid-teens. Unlike most, he stuck at it, was brought into the Waratahs fold by mentor Michael Cheika aged 21 (his second start was against the 2013 Lions) and won a Test debut in 2014.
Skelton’s size 17s walked out on Australia in 2017. With Saracens in the English Premiership and, more recently, La Rochelle in France’s Top 14, he has since won four Champions Cup medals in Europa. For six years, as Australian rugby hit the skids and their biggest stars joined the exodus overseas, Skelton existed as the Wallabies’ lost colossus.
Not until 2021 – 1,814 days after his last Test – did he return to the XXXXL gold jersey. A mixed bag of international cameos since then has gradually roused the sleeping giant. Yet at age 33 he has played only 33 Tests. This fortnight has shown the power Skelton wields to inspire his team-mates while intimidating their enemies. Now the big man is rolling, the juggernaut must continue.
Schmidt is schmoozing Skelton to delay his return to France to fly on to South Africa. And Rugby Australia chiefs, chief executive Phil Waugh and high performance boss Peter Horne, have told the coach there is “no impediment to select whoever he wants” from Australians playing around the world. Horne says the Giteau Law – in which only overseas players with 60 Tests could be selected for Test duty – is “redundant”.
Former Wallaby Quade Cooper has long reckoned, “if we want to compete with the world we need to select the world’s best players, regardless of where they play”. It is likely too late to keep three stars of the Sydney Test from heading abroad – Taniela Tupou is joining Racing 92 while man of the match Tom Hooper is off to Exeter and Langi Gleeson to Montpellier – but after years of selecting only home-based talent and not stars plying their trade abroad, the gates are at last open to the barbarians.
That includes Skelton. With him at the helm, Australia can challenge South Africa at home, put Argentina to the sword in Townsville and Sydney and even wrest back the Bledisloe Cup from New Zealand for the first time since 2002. And that’s no itshay. – Guardian
