Wallabies need to use grand slam tour as British and Irish Lions prep
analysis
SBy Simon Smale
Topic:Rugby Union
Australia has only beaten England once in the past 11 games.
The melodrama of sport is too often overstated, but there can be very little doubt there has never been more at stake for Australian rugby.
In eight months' time, the British and Irish Lions make their 12-yearly pilgrimage to these shores, hoping to offer a much-needed injection of enthusiasm to a sport in desperate need.
It's not a secret that the Wallabies are at a low ebb.
Currently, the two-time World Cup winners are ranked ninth in the world, last-place finishers in the Rugby Championships with just one win from six matches and fresh from a pool-stage exit at the last World Cup.
It's the sort of record that makes this grand slam spring tour of the northern hemisphere a long way off appointment viewing.
But for the Joe Schimdt and the Wallabies, it provides a vital look at the constituent parts of a Lions side.
Joe Schmidt's Wallabies won just one of their six Rugby Championship matches.
Plenty can and will happen between now and when Andy Farrell names his Lions tourists. An entire European season and Six Nations championships can make or break careers.
But no matter the personnel, the Lions that will come to Australia next winter will do so with slaughter on their minds.
Of the three main southern hemisphere powers, Australia remains the Lions' easiest assignment — the Wallabies have only won six games out of 23 against the raiders from the north, winning just two series out of nine.
The 73.91 per cent winning record in Tests against the Wallabies vastly outweighs that the Lions have achieved against either the Springboks (36.73 per cent) or All Blacks (17.07 per cent).
Schmidt has a vanishingly small number of Tests to settle on a squad that he believes can test the might of the British Isles, who may pose a significant enough challenge on their own, let alone when combined.
The Lions won the 2013 series against Australia 2-1.
It's been 40 years since the Wallabies of 1984 completed a victorious grand slam tour, beating England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland in the four Tests.
Australia was not invincible on that 18-match tour, losing matches to Cardiff, Ulster, Llanelli and South of Scotland, while also drawing with South and South West Division (Devon and Cornwall) in Exeter.
But when it counted, Alan Jones's side recorded crucial wins at Twickenham, Lansdowne Road, Cardiff Arms Park and Murrayfield.
Can Australia hope to manage even half that amount of success this time around?
That side — captained by Andrew Slack and led by the mercurial backline talents of David Campese, Michael Lynagh, Mark Ella and Nick Farr-Jones — the Wallabies showed verve and daring the likes of which European audiences had rarely seen.
Mark Ella is one of the Wallabies greatest ever players.
That backline excitement came off the back of an imposing pack, spearheaded by the likes of Steve Williams, Steve Cutler and Simon Poidevin.
Oh how Schmidt would love to have such talent at his disposal now.
Yet, there is talent in this Wallabies side, talent enough to help Schimdt re-establish some foundations that had been steadily eroded by the seismic shocks of the Eddie Jones era.
Will Skelton may have been left out of the match day squad for the England Test, despite playing some superb rugby for La Rochelle, but he is a vital re-inclusion to the touring party this spring.
The enormous, dynamic lock returns to the national set-up refreshed and in form after missing the disappointing Rugby Championship, eager to drive the Wallabies forward from their World Cup disappointment.
"The World Cup hurt everyone involved … But I look at it [this tour] as an awesome opportunity. We can really push up in the rankings and win every game that we can," he said.
"We've got a Lions series next year, which is an exciting prospect for Australian rugby, and the guys that are involved now can fulfil the potential that we have in this team."
One of those is Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, the 21-year-old code hopper who will be thrust into the firing line in front of around 82,000 at Twickenham, making his bow at outside centre.
Former Wallaby Morgan Turinui told Stan Sport "the more rugby he plays this November, the better it is for the Wallabies".
"You just don't have enough time to let Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii find his feet in rugby and slowly come through," he said.
"This is the most important Lions series in the history of Australian rugby.
"It's just huge and the more footy he plays with those Wallabies teammates, the easier it's got to be."
Suaalii has not played a single second of Super Rugby since his cross-code move from the Roosters, but said the expectation placed upon him is a privilege before the team left for Britain.
Nevertheless, it's a degree of expectation that would weigh heavy on the broadest of shoulders, not least those belonging to a 21-year-old.
As talented and physically gifted as Suaalii is, throwing him into a tactically challenging centre position risks flipping him straight out of the Twickenham frying pan and into the fire.
The scrap heap of players whose confidence is permanently damaged from being prematurely thrust into the spotlight is not where the Wallabies should risk placing Suaalii so soon after his multi-million-dollar, multi-year deal.
That being said, Suaalii's size and speed make him a dead-ringer for Israel Folau, a man whose Wallabies career started with a try against the Lions in Brisbane in 2013.
Samu Kerevi (right) said Joseph Suaalii had impressed him.
"Even as a 21-year-old, he reminds you, in bits and pieces, of Izzy," Samu Kerevi told AAP earlier this week.
"I know he's keen to get his hands on a Test jersey and he backs himself, which is what you want.
"His attention to detail is really good, because he wants to learn the game more, know his role really well and execute it, especially under Test lights. He's been hitting me with questions all week … I'm excited for him."
There are other impressive portents. Another league convert of some repute, Jason Robinson, also made his union Test bow half a year before a Lions tour — and it worked out well enough for him.
Perhaps the omens are looking good.
"There are four Test matches left this year before we embark on a massive Lions' tour next year," Schmidt said when speaking about throwing Suaalii into the starting line-up.
"So if not now, when? I think it makes some sense for him to play. It's unlikely it'll go perfectly, but it will be a benchmark that he can build from.
"It's not a new situation for us to have a debutant. In fact, it's the most common situation that we've had this year.
"In an effort to build depth and an effort to stabilise the group that we have, we see it as an opportunity more than as a risk and he's been excellent, which gives us confidence not to wait another week or two or even next year."
That being said, a newly invigorated England, with livewire flyhalf Marcus Smith pulling all the strings imaginable from 10, is a desperately tough challenge first up.
Since England suffered its own World Cup humiliation in 2015, losing to the Wallabies in the pool phases on their way to a premature exit, England has won 10 of its 11 matches against Australia.
England gave the All Blacks a real test last weekend, losing 24-22 after two missed kicks from George Ford, and is as good as unchanged for Saturday's clash.
But this is not a vintage England side and, given Scotland's continued resurgence, perhaps only next weekend's visit to Cardiff will be a more winnable match than this trip to the avariciously sponsor-christened Twickenham.
Nevertheless, this match, like the whole tour will be educational not just for how the Wallabies shape up against the cream of European rugby.
But also the size of the task ahead, where there is far more at stake than just a series victory.
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