Partying with Bond, 'most-violent' match & David Campese - The Lions Down Under
The British & Irish Lions are set to add to a fabled history of tours to Australia this summer as they return Down Under for the first time since 2013
Australia might be known as the 'lucky country' but don't tell that to David Campese.
The Wallabies great might have won the 1991 World Cup - where he was named Player of the Tournament - earned more than 100 caps in a 14-year international career and have gone down as one of the finest athletes (let alone rugby players) that Australia has ever produced. Yet to Lions fans, he'll always be remembered for a mistake, one that arguably handed the tourists victory in a rollercoaster 1989 series.
It set the platform for what has become a rivalry pock-marked with soaring highs, plundering lows and a fair bit of bad blood in between.
With 20 minutes left in the decisive third Test in Sydney, Australia led 12-9 when a Rob Andrew drop goal slipped wide of the posts, where a waiting Campese collected in his own in-goal area. The winger went back to run the ball out from behind his own try-line but then flicked a pass to his supporting full-back Greg Martin. However, as if in slow motion, the pass went behind Martin, hit the floor and the covering Ieuan Evans gleefully dived on the loose ball for the try and a lead the Lions would turn into a series-winning 19-18 victory.
'It was a one-in-100 moment,' Campese said when reflecting on the aftermath. 'I walked in the dressing room, none of the Australian players or [coach] Bob Dwyer came near me for about 15 minutes and I was pretty down.'
To rub salt into Campese's wound, he was pulled over by the police while driving home and handed a speeding ticket. 'Talk about bad luck,' he said.
And later, in a bizarre turn of events, as he walked through the front door, just desperate to get to bed, he had phone call from the St Helen's rugby league team offering him a huge sum of money to sign.
'I don't know what game they were watching,' he added. 'It was a strange night, that's for sure. The ironic thing is, I did the exact same pass the next week and it worked. It was bad luck.'
Campese's is not the only iconic Lions moment to have come Down Under. Think Brian O'Driscoll's breath-taking try, Kurtley Beale's jaw-dropping slip, and George North's hilarious fireman's lift on Israel Folau.
Historically, the Lions' most storied rivalries may be with South Africa and New Zealand, both scenes of legendary 1970s successes. But they have played those two nations 91 times combined and have won just 25. Take out the 71' tour to New Zealand, where the Lions recorded their only series win against the All Blacks, and the '74 trip to South Africa, where they emerged unbeaten and with a famous 3-0 win against the Springboks, and their overall record against those two southern hemisphere giants is – to be blunt – bleak.
Against Australia, it's anything but.
Of the 23 Test matches, from 1899 to 2013, the Lions have won 17. Indeed, of the nine Test series staged between them, they have won seven. Though the Lions have a long history of touring Australia - the very ever Lions tour included two months there in 1888, sandwiching two stints in New Zealand – their rivalry simmered rather than boiled for more than a century.
And then came 1989, and the rivalry burst into life – and not just because of Campese's infamous error. The background to the series was fascinating in itself.
The '89 Lions were the first to visit Australia since 1971, the first to play more than two games in the country since 1966 and only the second ever Lions side to use Australia as their sole destination. Only the Reverend Matthew Mullineux's tourists 90 years earlier had toured Australia without venturing to New Zealand.
With this in mind, it was hardly surprising that there were plenty of doubters ahead of the adventure. Australian rugby had struggled during the 1970s but the Grand Slam tourists of 1984 – the Wallabies beat all four home unions on an autumn tour - had shown that they could hang with the best.
The Lions may have won all eight of their non-Test fixtures but they were convincingly beaten in the first international in Sydney, a 30-12 hammering. But that defeat only spurred the Lions on to create history of their own. The Battle of Ballymore, as it was aptly christened by the Australian press, is widely regarded as one of the most bruising encounters in the history of the game.
Victory over the soon-to-be world champions kept the tourists' series hopes alive but it was perhaps the manner of the triumph that paved the way for a series win – with the first scrum setting the tone.
Australia's scrum-half Nick Farr-Jones prepared to feed the ball in but opposite number Robert Jones sneakily stood on his rival's foot and Farr-Jones snapped. As the two smallest men on the field came to blows, the Lions forwards piled in and battle commenced.
Similarly robust confrontations occurred at regular intervals throughout the match, with Dai Young later accused of stamping on the head of Australian lock Stephen Cutler in one of the most-controversial moments of the entire series.
"I would describe it as the most violent game of rugby that has ever been played,' said flanker Mike Teague after a 19-12 win.
Robert Jones said: 'It was a spur-of-the-moment decision to stand on his foot at the first scrum and push down. He came back at me, and within seconds there was a pretty lively punch up going on.'
The Australian public were engaged – and enraged. And then, a week later, came Campese.
Now, with the Lions in a fixed cycle of touring Australia, New Zealand and South Africa on rotation, they have only been back Down Under twice since that series.
2001 was very different to 1989 – and what went on tour certainly did not stay on tour.
Graham Henry was named as the first overseas coach in Lions history, having earned an impressive reputation with Wales, but the decision was met with criticism from sections of the press, arguing that an Irishman or a Brit should always be handed the reigns ahead of a foreigner. Rumours of discontent in the camp were rife before newspaper columns and player diaries threatened to ruin the tour.
Austin Healy never has shaken off the fall-out from his Observer column, where he labelled Wallabies lock Justin Harrison a 'plank' and an 'ape'. He later used those pages to predict a fine would be coming his way. He was right. It was £3,000.
The Lions somehow still produced one of their best-ever performances in the opening Test - inspired by a coming-of-age try from Irish centre O'Driscoll, where he danced through a sea of Aussie defenders and sprinted clear to score - before the Wallabies fought back to triumph in the second and third matches.
2013 was hardly spice-free either. Kurtley Beale's missed penalty in the last minute cost the Wallabies a first Test win and, while they battled back to level the series, the Lions produced an all-time display to win 41-16 in the third – with James Bond actor Daniel Craig partying with them in the changing rooms.
'Australia is a special place,' said Jamie Roberts at the end of that tour. 'Anything can happen.'
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