Tour diary entry #10: Why do bad time zones happen to good people?
As the Lions go 1-0 up and the tour rumbles on to Melbourne, there's some big news back home
So, the Lions are 1-0 up in the series.
A fairly routine victory over the Wallabies in Brisbane. No Welshmen in the side, but plenty of them around the city.
The likes of Dan Biggar, Jamie Roberts, Ken Owens and Alex Cuthbert were on media duty, while Shane Williams, Leigh Halfpenny, Scott Quinnell and others were knocking around.
As Test matches go, it was an odd one. The Lions were dominant early on - to the point you feared for what this series would even be.
The Lions works as a concept because they should be underdogs. It’s four nations, coming together with limited preparation time and playing an established Test nation.
Andy Farrell’s class of 2025 aren’t alone in chasing winning over all else. It’s probably more that other tours did so away from the vantage point of being the class bully.
They should probably win this series 3-0. I think it’s that, more than the lack of Welshmen in the side, that makes it a strange one to follow.
I really hope the Wallabies can improve this week in Melbourne. There were signs in the second-half, but the game was done as a contest by then in all honesty.
The continuous call-ups aren’t exactly helping the tour either. Granted, they’re likely a little in response to the Aussies not holding up their end of the tour agreement in terms of playing stronger teams in the warm-ups.
Right now, the Lions are probably feeling miffed about the lack of Wallabies they faced earlier on the tour. Perhaps that has influenced just how much geography-based cover they’ve reached for.
The latest, Scotland lock Gregor Brown, was another surprise.
As the travelling press arrived in Melbourne on Sunday evening, it dawned on all of us that the aforementioned Brown was also due to arrive in the city on the same day.
When we all saw a driver holding up a sign saying ‘BROWN’, we thought all our Christmases had come at once.
In utterly puerile fashion, an awful Scottish accent was put on as I tried to play the part of an international second-row.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I’d like to offer an apology to a Mr Tony Brown for almost stealing your ride.