If the general view of the defeat for the British & Irish Lions in their ‘home’ clash with Argentina in Dublin last week was ‘no harm done’, it will be a different story if they can’t overcome Western Force in Perth in the first of their nine games on Australian soil this weekend (kick-off 11.ooam, Saturday 28 June).
Head coach Andy Farrell has been able to select from a full complement, minus a couple of injury concerns in full back Hugo Keenan and scrum half Jamison Gibson-Park, for the first time after resting those players from Leinster and Leicester Tigers who had played in their respective cup finals.
Dan Sheehan is one of four debutants in the side, the Leinster man also taking over the captaincy, and his task will be to boost moral after the 28-24 reverse to the Pumas. Only Scotland centre Sione Tuipulotu and Irish forward Tadhg Beirne remain from last week’s starting XV.
“It’s important to know where the opposition’s mindset is and how they approach a game that only comes around every 12 years, like it does for the Western Force,” said Sheehan.
“I’m sure the Force will be 150 per cent of what they usually are. They will be flying into it and that bit of extra hunger can produce some powerful things.
“They would have been eyeing this game up since they probably first stepped into that Western Force change room. It’ll mean an awful lot to them.
“But I don’t want them to think that they’re going to be hungrier than us. We have to demonstrate back our own mindset because this will be the first time I will be putting on the jersey, along with a few other lads.”
This is the first of five games ahead of the first Test and the first of three Saturday dates. The significance of that is that every Lion wants to be playing in the weekend games, which are traditionally the biggest games.
If that is not necessarily the case with the kick-off game in Perth, where the Lions have never lost a match, it still puts players like Wales’ own Tomos Williams on the front foot after his highly promising cameo performance off the bench in Dublin.
He will partner Finn Russell at half-back and will hoping for a big performance before Gibson-Park makes his first appearance.
The importance of playing on a Saturday was highlightd by Sam Warburton, who led the Lions on their tours to Australia in 2013 and New Zealand in 2017, writing in his column in The Times this week.
“Playing a midweek game for the Lions is a huge honour — and it is certainly more important than playing a summer Test for your country — but the truth is that everyone is hoping they are not picked in those midweek games, simply because you know what it means,” wrote Warburton.
“Very early on that might be different as there will be some mix-and-match selections, but very quickly the Test side is taking shape and that side will be playing on the Saturdays. The pressure is massive.
“One quiet game and you can see yourself slipping down the pecking order. It is worse for those on their first tours because they know nothing else. Those who have been Lions before will know that so much can change and so many players can unexpectedly play key roles.”
Since the Lions first played on Aussie soil back in 1888, they have faced 121 fixtures. Of those games they have won 102, drawn three and lost 16. They have only ever lost once in their first tour match in Australia, which was against Queensland in 1971.
That narrow defeat was the pre-cursor to one of the greatest Lions tours of all time, which ended with the only series win in New Zealand, 2-1.