Let's Talk Lions

WELL, THAT WAS a real Test Match, the outcome in doubt right up to time added-on. As I feared it might, Andy Farrell's tinkering with a winning side almost back-fired, but, the Lions somehow found a way to win at the death.

The Lions had a poor first half, their discipline was, not for the first time on the Tour, poor, but, as good sides do, they found a way to get over the line. I was delighted for Jac Morgan, getting on to make that crucial clear-out in the build-up to Hugo Keenan's match-winning, series-clinching try.

Australia were more like themselves, but, I always felt, the Lions' bench might prove crucial and so it proved. Of course, I look at these games from a Scottish stand-point. Huw Jones simply did Huw Jones' things, scoring a crucial try, while Finn Russell, even at only 7-7.5/10 level, was still above the level of the potential alternatives at 10/10. I don't think Bundee Aki was as-influential in this Test as Sione Tuipulotu was in the first game, while Blair Kinghorn gave new energy when he came on, and I would definitely start him on the wing in Sydney.

Knowing their past record, the Australian media will have a field day in moaning about the legality or otherwise of Dan Sheehan's try for the Lions, then Morgan's clear-out at the end. “Whingeing Poms” have nothing on “Whingeing Wallabies” - as we are about to re-discover this coming week.

Still, the Series has been decided and the Lions now have a chance of a rare 3-0 series win – the drama continues.

THE WEST – OR IF YOU LIKE the First World – invented the world of sport. Dr Arnold and the concept of “Muscular Christianity” and the Much Wenlock Games got things going, before the concept spread across the British Empire. In time, the lesser nations cottoned-on and, before ere long, The Sports Business was born.

Fortunately the Americans were slow to get into the empire-building business in sport, otherwise we would all be playing American Football, Baseball and Basketball; but, our trans-Atlantic cousins appear to prefer, in the world of sport, to stick to games which only they play, so they don't have to try too hard to be World Champions.

The true days of empire may be passed, but, the pale-skinned District Commissioner class have managed to hang onto control of Cricket and Rugby Union, the two principal sports of empire – perhaps because, while Cricket has embraced professionalism from the very start, both have been mainly amateur sports until very recently. Football, having become the most working-class of the games which grew out of Muscular Christianity in Britain's public schools, was the first to surrender control to foreign influence, but, this may have had something to do with the British Football Associations looking down on FIFA for long enough for that body to find its own identity.

Still, I am old enough to remember when rich, older white men ruled the world of sport – the Olympic Games, FIFA and so on. Then, a couple of mavericks: Spain's Juan Antonio Samaranch and Brazil's João Havelange managed to get the rest of the world well-enough-organised to bread the “Old West's” grip on the top jobs.

To date, the British Empire nations have managed to keep control of World Rugby, but, I can see the day coming when they drop the ball, after which, things will never be the same again. How long we must wait for that change, I do not know, but, I can see the day when the four Home Nations, plus Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have things their own way ending – maybe sooner rther than later.

When that happens, look out for an end to the Six Nations, once England decides there are more bums prepared to sit on the seats inside whatever Twickenham is being called then, to see England beat Germany, Spain, France and Italy, than to see them taking a beating from Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Then, once they individual countries realise, letting their best players go off to play for The Lions at the mid-point of the four-year World Cup round, and dropping World Cup ranking points to a lesser nations isn't a good idea – for all the merchandise they shift, for all the profits the supporters tours organisers make, The Lions will very-quickly be history.

And if say a charismatic Frenchman, Argentinian or Fijian can emerge and command the backing of the non-Empire nations in World Rugby – or say a non-Afrikaans-speaking South African emerge to unite the other rugby-playing nations in that vast continent, the changes will happen quickly, and be extreme.

So, enjoy The Lions, today and next Saturday, because there will not be too-many such days in the future I suspect.