‘Lions is best thing I’ve ever done,’ says Ben Earl as Test wannabes search for elusive spark

This time next week things will finally be getting real. The streets of Brisbane will be awash with red jerseys and, as Andy Farrell has been stressing from day one, the intensity of this Lions tour will soar to a whole new level. At which point it will all boil down to one essential question: are the Lions ready for what is coming over the horizon?

As the players stretched and flexed in front of Adelaide Oval’s famous old scoreboard for their last fixture before the first Test, the answer is that no one can yet be entirely certain. The squad have spent the past fortnight frantically crisscrossing this great southern land like time-poor captains of industry and, deliberately or not, have revealed the best of themselves only fleetingly.

Close your eyes and it is possible to visualise it being all right on the night. These Lions have plenty of depth, are genuinely enjoying each other’s company and, in the fleeting moments when everything clicks, they look a more than decent side. If top teams are characterised by the quality of the spine running through them, they pass the test: Dan Sheehan, Maro Itoje, Jamison Gibson-Park and Finn Russell are world class in their different ways.

Which, as it happens, is pretty much what the Lions are also telling themselves. “There’s a big thing we’ve been speaking about, about being one of the best Lions teams ever,” said Ben Earl, eagerly awaiting another opportunity at No 8 against a power-packed Australia & New Zealand Invitational XV. Statistically, it is not a complete pipe dream: a 3-0 clean sweep of the Wallabies would ensure a superior strike rate in percentage terms to the legendary 1974 Lions, who won three and drew one of their four Tests in South Africa.

Even to be mentioned in the same paragraph, let alone the same sentence, as true greats such as Gareth Edwards, Willie John McBride, Phil Bennett, JJ Williams et al would be special. To reach that state of nirvana, though, they need to fix the tiny bits and pieces of rugby engineering that can go unnoticed but matter hugely. Breakdown effectiveness, ball retention, set-piece accuracy, restart consistency: too often the Lions have improved in one area only to splutter elsewhere.

Jamison Gibson-Park is one of the world-class players in this British & Irish Lions squad. Photograph: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

Hence why Saturday’s game has become more relevant than it might otherwise have been. Regardless of the opposition – there are 17 internationals in their squad – Farrell wants to see greater continuity and his players are similarly aware that collective momentum before the Test series has to trump individual ambition. “Everyone wants to be in that Test team and everyone wants to put their hand up but the second you try to do that on your own you’re being desperate,” said Tadhg Beirne, who captains again in Maro Itoje’s absence.

“If you’re being desperate you’re really doing yourself and your teammates no favours. So the focus is on making sure we’re the best teammates we can be for one another. If I can make someone else look good and it gets them into the Test team then I’ve done a pretty good job.”

Among the more seasoned members of the squad there is also a sense that, regardless of the recent mixed performances against the NSW Waratahs and ACT Brumbies, this Lions squad still has the potential to roar louder than most. “It feels like it’s coming together,” said Tadhg Furlong this week, recalling the way the 2017 tour of New Zealand came good from uncertain beginnings. “We just need to iron out the last bit. It doesn’t probably feel like we’re there yet but it doesn’t feel like we’re far away.”

Earl is similarly optimistic, suggesting he already feels an improved player simply for having been a part of this tour. “I can wholeheartedly tell you it’s the best thing I’ve ever done by a mile. I’ve learned more in the last five weeks than I probably have in the last four years, in terms of seeing the game differently, playing with different people and competing on the training pitch. It’s been unbelievable. At this time of the year – what are we, 54 weeks into the season now? – just playing is so fun, so enjoyable, so exciting. It’s the coolest thing.”

An unexpected chance to sit down and pick the brains of Ricky Stuart, the Canberra Raiders rugby league coach, has also opened Earl’s eyes in other respects. Take the old-school notion that driving players hard on the training ground before a big game is a non-negotiable prerequisite. “That’s probably something I’ve learned as well. You don’t have to flog them on the training pitch or do seven days in a monastery to get the rewards on a Saturday.”

Being “treated like adults” – hopefully the Lions communications team will extend the same courtesy to the travelling media – has been another hefty plus in Earl’s view. The more immediate priority, though, is to rise above the logistical headaches of short turnarounds and limited training time that could affect the weak-minded. “These are the games where you have short preparation and sore bodies at the end of a tough two-week block,” said Earl. “You’ve got some excuses there if you wanted to roll over and not put your best stuff forward but then you’d be doing yourself and the jersey a complete disservice.”

Quite so. For Beirne, Hugo Keenan, Sione Tuipulotu, Henry Pollock, Jac Morgan and others, the trick is consequently to be mustard-keen without being selfish or prioritising the glittering prize of first Test selection. While the impending arrival of Jamie Osborne as cover for the injured Blair Kinghorn means there are set to be as many Leinster players on tour as from the whole of England, weekends such as this are for all-for-one musketeers and shared objectives.

The post-match press conference will also be fun if Owen Farrell comes off the bench, clinches the game for the Lions in the closing stages and sends his father’s squad skipping back up to Brisbane on a high. Should the Invitational XV flex their sizeable muscles instead and suffocate a bucket-load of Test ambitions, the underdog Wallabies will be entitled to believe all is not entirely lost. “You can’t be the best Lions team ever and lose 3-0 in the Test series or not win many games,” said Earl. Are these 2025 Lions fully primed for what lies ahead? We are about to find out.