“Li-ons, Li-ons!”
The chant reverberated around the cauldron of Brisbane’s Suncorp stadium, drowning out the PA system playing Men At Work’s “Down Under”. After three weeks of touring, the first test finally arrived last Saturday.
The nice thing about the camaraderie of rugby is that the reds and golds were scattered evenly through the 52,000 crowd, with rival fans sitting side by side. The competition is certainly fierce, but the mutual respect and friendship is tangible. All weekend thousands of red-shirted British and Irish Lions fans had thronged the streets of Brisbane in a carnival of good will.
There may be as many as 30,000 of them touring Australia at the moment.
Our rivalry with Australia is intense in many sports. The Ashes tour, just about to start, is another reminder of that. But a Lions tour is something special. They only come down here every 12 years, and most top flight rugby players will only get one crack in a career. So they make a very big deal of it.
At a large rugby dinner in Parliament last week, attended by MPs from all sides, Opposition leader Tony Abbott reminisced fondly about his days playing for Oxford. At the test match I chatted with former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Queensland Premier Campbell Newman and Governor HE Penny Wensley.
The Irish Ambassador, my good friend Noel White, and I have been working closely together. Our two chambers of commerce held joint Lions tour functions in major cities. Our consular teams did contingency drills together. Noel and I welcomed the team when they arrived in Canberra – feeling rather insignificant beside these giant, supremely fit men.
We accompanied a group of them to the National War Memorial, where they laid a wreath in a very moving ceremony. It was a great privilege to speak with the magnificent Lions and Wales captain Sam Warburton.
If you’ve bothered to read this far, you’ll already know the result – a 23:21 victory to the Lions. But it was a very close-run thing, with a nail-biting finish.
Kurtley Beale, who had been excellent since coming on, missed a penalty with the last kick of the game, which would have given victory to the Wallabies. I’m still hoarse from cheering. Roll on the second test in Melbourne next week.