Saturday's showdown in Sydney will be the 25th test match of the professional era for the British and Irish Lions, with 200 starting positions for forwards in those fixtures.
Scottish players have filled just eight of those slots, with six outings by Tom Smith and only a solitary Scot starting in the pack across the last six tours.
By the time the 2029 tour to New Zealand, it will have been...
-
Eight years since a Scot last started a Lions test at loosehead prop for the Lions;
-
32 years since a Scot last started a test at blindside flanker for the Lions;
-
36 years since a Scot last started a test at hooker, tighthead prop or in the number four jersey for the Lions;
-
40 years since a Scot last started a Lions test at openside flanker
-
46 years since a Scot last started a test at number eight for the Lions;
-
52 years since a Scot last started a Lions test in the number five jersey.
Australia vs British & Irish Lions - third test head-to-heads
-
Tommy Freeman is the only player in the visitors’ starting line-up who will be under the age of 30 when the Lions next tour in 2029.
-
The Lions won’t be back in Australia for another 12 years. At that point, Max Jorgensen will still only be 32, younger than Bundee Aki, Jamison Gibson-Park and his opposite number from the first two Tests, James Lowe, are currently.
-
Tadhg Furlong, Maro Itoje, Tom Curry and Jack Conan will start all three Tests against Australia having also started all three Lions’ Tests versus South Africa in 2021.
-
Furlong also started the full series against New Zealand in 2017. Curry is the youngest of the quartet and could match his tighthead colleague’s feat if he returns in four years time aged 31 to take on the All Blacks.
-
Eight minutes into this fixture, Maro Itoje will have played every minute of the last 10 hours of Lions’ Test rugby. He will be the only player in the professional era to achieve this mark and the first since Graham Price between 1977 and 1983.
-
Owen Farrell has been named on the bench seven times for Lions’ Test matches, matching the record set by Martyn Williams for the professional era.
-
This is the first Lions bench to feature six players from the same country.
-
Of the 184 substitute slots for the [[Lions]] since the game went pro, 91 have been filled by players from England with 93 from the other three nations combined
Scot Watch
Finn Russell played his first competitive fixture of the 2024/25 campaign 45 weeks ago when Bath took on Northampton at the Rec in Round 1 of the Premiership.
This will be game number 37 of the season for the fly-half, with 36 of those being starts. As things stand he has played 2,656 minutes of rugby – 144 more than the next highest tally in the Lions’ squad (Tommy Freeman) and 2,014 more than the lowest (Tadhg Furlong).
It’s less common for him to fill this role at international level though – he hasn’t started a Test match on the left wing since a game against Wales in October 2020.
Huw Jones will join Russell in starting every fixture in a [[Lions]] test series, making them just the third and fourth Scotland players to do so during the professional era.
Scots who have started every Test of a Lions series in the post-war period
-
2025 – Huw Jones, Finn Russell (3 Tests)
-
2021 – Duhan van der Merwe (3)
-
2001 – Tom Smith (3)
-
1997 – Tom Smith (3)
-
1993 – Gavin Hastings (3)
-
1989 – Finlay Calder, Gavin Hastings, David Sole (3)
-
1983 – Roger Baird, Iain Paxton (4)
-
1977 – Andy Irvine (4)
-
1974 – Ian McGeechan, Ian McLauchlan (4)
-
1971 – Ian McClauchlan (4)
-
1968 – Rodger Arneil, Jock Turner (4)
-
1962 – Mike Campbell-Lamerton (4)
-
1959 – Hugh McLeod (6)
-
1955 – Jim Greenwood (4)
Australia Scouting Report
Changes
There are five changes to the Wallabies’ starting XV with another three new faces on the bench:
-
2. Billy Pollard for David Porecki
-
3. Taniela Tupou for Allan Alaalatoa
-
6. Tom Hooper for Rob Valetini
-
9. Nic White for Jake Gordon
-
11. Dylan Pietsch for Harry Potter
Hooker, Brandon Paenga-Amosa, tighthead prop, Zane Nonggorr, and back Andrew Kellaway join the subs in place of Pollard, Tom Robertson and flanker, Carlo Tizzano, with that latter change making it a more traditional five/three split among the replacements.
Joe Schmidt keeps adding more size to his pack. In the first test, the Australian starting forwards had a 13kg weight advantage. Last time out this has increased to 32kgs. For this game, it will be 62kgs or a little under 8kgs per man.
The hooker was 15 from 15 on his lineout throws during the second test, despite the Wallabies starting a non-jumping lock (Will Skelton) and not having a recognised lineout specialist in the back row.
The stats do lie
Australia will look at the statistics from the second test and wonder how exactly they ended up losing.
They held the lead for 74 minutes and 27 seconds of game time, until Hugo Keenan’s late, late score put the Lions in front for the only time in the match.
The Wallabies won the physicality battle for much of the game, making more post contact metres and generating better ruck speed.
They edged the penalty count. They missed fewer tackles. They made more line breaks.
Yet it all meant nothing when that series-clinching try was scored.
Shifting momentum
The issues for the home side started much earlier than the final minutes. With 53.06 on the clock, a penalty stretched their lead beyond two scores.
Little more than a minute later, it took a try-saving tackle from Tom Curry on Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii to stop the Wallabies building what surely would have been an impregnable margin.
Across the remaining 26 minutes of game time though, Australia managed just 10 seconds of possession in the Lions’ 22.
After Tadgh Beirne’s try made it a one score game, the visitors then had three opportunities to get the try that would put them in front.
Only interventions by Carlo Tizzano and Langi Gleeson (forcing penalties) followed by Tom Robertson (forcing a knock on) kept the British and Irish side at bay.
At the fourth time of asking, the defence just couldn’t hold out any longer.
Power game
The Australians seemed punched out by the time the latter stages of the matches rolled around.
They weren’t helped by only getting 40 and 47 minutes respectively out of Rob Valetini and Will Skelton. That duo were their side’s leading carriers at the point they
Langi Gleeson at least did a passable impression of Valetini when he came on, but the Wallabies had nothing even close to Skelton to bring in at lock.
Without Valetini to take on more of the dynamic carries, can Skelton have as much impact again this weekend?
Officials
Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia) Assistant Referee 1: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand) Assistant Referee 2: Andrea Piardi (Italy) TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa) FPRO: Richard Kelly (New Zealand)
Nika Amashukeli has refereed [[England]], Ireland, [[Scotland]] and [[Wales]] on 16 previous occasions (with some overlap where two of those teams have played in the same game).
Even in defeat, the Wallabies had the better of the penalty count, which finished 13-10 against the All Blacks who also received the only yellow card of the game.
The penalty counts so far...
- Australia 7 – 11 Lions (referee: Ben O’Keeffe)
- Australia 8 – 9 Lions (referee: Andrea Piardi)
The touring side also copped the only card of the series so far when Tommy Freeman was sin binned last weekend.
The Foul Play Review Officers have had the easiest time of things so far in Australia, with no referrals through 160 minutes of action in the first two tests.
Share