Ronan O’Gara: Even when there’s a Will, there isn’t always a way

There is a noticeable buzz around this city, and the epicentre of this week’s build up, the MCG, is as imposing as ever. However it scarcely represents the sporting landscape of this town. I was at Melbourne Storm’s training and their captain’s run this week. It reminded me of the Crusaders, virtually at the roadside where strangers can peer over the wall and watch the session. There’s reason for Melbourne’s sporting reputation but it’s not because of its soaring amphitheatres against the city’s skyline. It’s more the quantity of facilities, nestled in and dotted around the city’s communities and neighbourhoods. Melbourne reeks of a place where sport is played, all sports be it League, Union, Footy, Cricket, horse racing, Formula One. The Tennis. And the Irish footprint is large, not sure if it’s as large as Sydney’s, but every time I saw an orange jacket on a construction site here, I strained an ear and wondered was he an engineer or a brickie. How would I know?

The Melbourne Storm recce completed an interesting and worthwhile couple of weeks for me on the margins of the test series. In terms of augmenting my day job, listening to the likes of Frank Ponissi and Craig Bellamy at the Storm this week has been enlightening, as I expected it would be. There is a broad and loose tie up down here between the Storm and the Crusaders – different codes, different countries allowing – so I’ve known them since 2019. Shared experiences are always better.

I watched a captain’s run Wednesday, a pitch session and chatted to players, coaches doctors, and physios. It isn’t anything blindingly new you are after because the atom’s been discovered. There is little that floors you like a haymaker. It’s more little incrementals, little ‘ooh, I like that’, they might have something in their team room, for instance.

The story of the tour from a rugby standpoint has been one of Lions success but little in the way of rolling thunder. Monday’s post Brisbane test review would have been quite enlightening. When you don’t shut the door on an opposition – if you leave a door ajar for a referee to interpret scrums differently or an opposition to hitch their wagon to rising momentum - there’s usually a price to be paid. Ruthlessness in red was missing last Saturday. It’s been a recurring problem on this tour. The second test here would be a harder sell if Andy Farrell’s side had been accurate and more efficient in the second period, and won by – and I don’t exaggerate - 35 points.

Bizarrely, even though they were never going to win the test match, the Australians will take confidence from that. The gulf in class between the two sides was as obvious as it was evident, and typified by the difference at half back. I’ve always promoted the primacy of home advantage in test rugby but a proper test match has to have the lead going back and forth and there wasn’t the slightest hint of that in Brisbane.

Will Skelton has more than a role for himself this weekend, he has a role for Australian rugby. He needs to play well which will give belief to his team mates. Joe Schmidt clearly didn’t like his chances of going deep into the first test but will need his lock and back row Rob Valetini to go for an hour in Melbourne and help sow doubts into the tourists by ensuring, minimum, it’s a one or two score game at that stage. Is there any hint of regret from the Wallaby side that they didn’t carry Skelton on the bench last Saturday in Brisbane and spring him off the bench with 20 to go and the Wallabies only 10 down?

As we’ve clearly seen from the phased return of Tadhg Furlong, every minute of high-level game time is an investment for the next day out. The Irish prop is looking excellent again, whereas Skelton will do well to get up to speed on the fly.

Two other thoughts from last weekend: how disproportionate is the reward for contesting those 50-50 aerial balls when there is nothing on? The kick, the catch from Jorgensen over Hugo Keenan and he’s over the line for five – the reward you can get from being gritty from a situation that looks speculative at best.

That the Lions have changed it up a bit as well – enforced in two of the three instances, admittedly – might be no bad thing, and the inclusion of Owen Farrell in the replacements offers greater calm under pressure as the Lions look to close the book on this series.

If he continues to show form, style and assurance at ten, Finn Russell will vie with Tadhg Beirne for player of the series but Jamison Gibson-Park won’t be far behind. That’s on the basis of formlines. At half-time in Croke Park last Sunday, there was nothing to suggest the destructive earthquake we witnessed in the second half of the hurling final.

For the poor Cork hurlers, does this belong more in the area of sports psychology or crisis management? I have little idea what category you put it into, but with hurling and the speed of the game, coupled with the rate of scoring, and following a seven-goal semi-final, this was truly inexplicable. Two points in the second half? There are amateur explanations and rumours aplenty on social media, but I only took notice of one clip this week – Tipp manager Liam Cahill getting stuck into a local journalist and taking exception to a question on his future. From a dead man walking to king of the walk. Sport is funny. Now they want to build a statue to the man.