| With his eye for a gap and flair for niggle, Cooper cut through to the achilles of Schmidt’s Australia. That Wallabies identity – typically, tough running rugby played with flair and guile – is yet to be established by a backline conductor at 10 a la Mark Ella, Stephen Larkham or Beale. Jones had anointed the cavalier Carter Gordon, then 22, at the 2023 World Cup but that disaster so traumatised “Flash” that he signed with the National Rugby League soon afterward. Instead, Australia’s most likely mojo man is Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, the 21-year-old prodigy once lost to the NRL but now re-signed at great expense to front Australia’s charge to the home 2027 World Cup. Suaalii’s spectacular gifts were on show in November against England at Twickenham where his power in contact and dexterity in the air resulted in four offloads, two try‑assists and three won kick-offs in a famous 42-37 victory – a dervish debut to match that of the vaunted Henry Pollock. Alas, Kid Dynamite hasn’t played since May owing to a broken jaw (“I broke the Ferrari!” his teammate Andrew Kellaway said after the two collided) and is being fed back to true fighting weight by his mum and six sisters. An NRL revenge attack has also deprived Schmidt of the gamebreaking 11-Test winger Mark Nawaqanitawase. Will the coach risk a pocket rocket backline to outzip the 100kg Tommy Freeman, Duhan van der Merwe, Bundee Aki and Sione Tuipulotu? After losing against an understrength Los Pumas, Farrell has his own worries. The first Test is only three weeks away. Both coaches have five games to survive and thrive as Wallabies and Lions camps galvanise players, coaches, chieftains, media and fans against a common foe. Every day they must build combinations and confidence, studying, irking and outwitting the other while probing, even creating, weaknesses. On 19 July in Brisbane, for the first time in 12 years, all stars will align, then collide. The memory of Seddon Joe Schmidt’s stiffened stance on squad members playing for their states against the Lions is based on his need to have his men battle-fit for the Test against Fiji, a revenge mission after the Flying Fijians’ 22-15 win at the 2023 World Cup – their first against Australia in 69 years. The Test will be played in Newcastle, burial place of Robert Seddon, now recognised as the first captain of the British & Irish Lions and leader of their inaugural 1888 tour. Seddon sadly drowned in the Hunter River after overturning a rowboat. A teammate recalled him setting out “with no hat upon his head and a cigarette in his mouth in the best of health and spirits … the very impersonation of happiness and contentment”. Despite being midway into the 54-game tour – during which the Lions played 19 games of Australian rules football as well as rugby – the side honoured Bob Seddon as “tour captain” to the end. Likewise the 2013 Lions captain Sam Warburton, who made a pilgrimage to Seddon’s grave that year to thank the Maitland rugby club, whose players still care for the gravesite, an act the team manager Andy Irvine said “demonstrated the spirit of rugby”. Memory lane In his 101-Test career with 64 tries, David Campese won plenty of games for the Wallabies by attacking from anywhere on the field, with chip’n’chase kicks, no-look passes or his famous goose-step. The phrase “too easy Campese” is still common in Australia. Now 62 and a pundit, Campo is still famous for his attack. After the defeat against Los Pumas, Campo wrote that the Lions “will be toast Down Under” and will “lose 3-0” unless they fix their aerial game, competition at the breakdown and find an “enforcer”. Doubtless, Lions fans will remind Campo of his role in their series victory in 1989. With Australia ahead 12-9 in the third and deciding Test, Campese’s loose pass attacking from his own goal gifted Ieuan Evans the match-winning, series-stealing try. “The idea was perfectly sound, the execution went wrong,” Campo later reflected. Although quickly forgiven by fans and teammates, the woebegone winger fled the post-match function … only to be booked by police for speeding on his way home. | 