British and Irish Lions tour: How the Wallabies can square the series in Melbourne

MELBOURNE — The British and Irish Lions’ tour of Australia needed a moment of jeopardy, something to whip up engagement in what is a unique and special sporting event that, so far in 2025, has lacked that little bit of edge.

The fact that it came at a half-full Marvel Stadium, on a Tuesday night, with a team brought together on little more than a week’s notice was stunning.

And so the First Nations-Pasifika XV, led by Wallabies veteran Kurtley Beale and coached by an alltime great and Lions series winner in Toutai Kefu, delivered the shot of energy this tour desperately needed – and rammed home a message for a Wallabies team looking to square the Test series at 1-1 on Saturday night.

The in-your-face, antagonistic defensive alignment the FNP team deployed against the Lions was not without its risks. At 14-0 inside 15 minutes, Kefu’s team looked to be the latest Australian outfit to be mauled by the Lions.

But winger Triston Reilly’s intercept changed the momentum completely and 22 minutes later the teams headed to half-time locked up at 14-all. With a little more second-half ball, and some poise in the dying stages, the FNP team may well have achieved something truly remarkable. Instead, they could hold their heads high having gone down 24-19.

“A lot of us were there watching and just seeing the way Pasifika went after them, the line speed, the big hits in defence. It was a great blueprint there about how to really try and physically dominate them,” Wallabies Harry Wilson skipper said Friday of the FNP’s performance.

“They connected and went out there and did a performance that they should be so proud of.”

The performance of lock Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, in particular, caught the eye while Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt also praised Darcy Swain, the player he left out of his Test squad to accommodate Josh Canham.

But Schmidt also came armed to his Thursday press conference with a statistic that had perhaps been washed over by the masses, or at least one he thought tempered how the FNP team had rattled the Lions in the second quarter.

“I thought the First Nations-Pasifika team did a fantastic job, but after 31 minutes, they’ve conceded 13 linebreaks,” Schmidt said Thursday. “If we do that in a Test match, we could be a lot further behind than the FNP team were on Tuesday evening.

“So we’ve got to make sure we get the balance right, that some of that aggressive line speed that they brought, we’ve got to bring that, but we’ve also got to make sure that it’s connected because when you leak like that and they can play in behind you, then it’s very hard to get back in front of them.

“So 13 linebreaks to two, after 30 minutes, we can’t afford to have that stat.”

It’s true the FNP team were exposed with some clever Lions attack early on. But it was hardly surprising either; they had after all had just three training sessions to bring it all together. And this was no second-rate opponent either; Owen Farrell, Jamie George, Jac Morgan and Josh van der Flier are long-time Test performers.

Schmidt’s Wallabies squad has been working solidly now for the best part of a month. They can have no excuses when it comes to defensive connectivity. Line speed, assured alignment and breakdown pressure are non-negotiables for the Wallabies at the MCG on Saturday night.

But as Wilson said, the FNP blueprint has given Australia cause for belief, helped by the return of two-time John Eales Medalist Rob Valetini and 2023 World Cup captain Will Skelton. There is no way they can be held to 79 first-half run metres, as was the case in Brisbane, again.

Immediately the Wallabies are a bigger and more combative team — on both sides of the ball. Embracing the brawn and intensity of the FNP, but being smart about it in the process, holds the key for Australia on Saturday night.

Combine the two and we could be heading for a Sydney decider this time next week.