The decision that is good news for the Wallabies against Lions

The announcement of the three referees for the Lions series – Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand), Andrew Piardi (Italy) and Nika Amashukeli (Georgia) – prompted the usual amount of moaning on social media this week. But here’s the tip, if you actually want to enjoy the Lions series switch off your socials for a month or so.

In any case, from a Wallabies standpoint, the appointment of O’Keeffe for the first Test is great news: he’s familiar to the Wallabies and he’ll be coming off a Super Rugby Pacific campaign in which he, and other refs, made a big effort to keep the tempo high. O’Keeffe is quite simply one of the world’s best. That won’t stop the “freeze frame” mob from invading social media to highlight various refereeing outrages, but that says more about those platforms than the refs themselves.

Andy Farrell will face scrutiny if – or when – Lions go Irish

Andy Farrell will name his British and Irish Lions squad later this week and the big questions are: How many Irish players will he pick?; and will he pick his son Owen? Leinster’s shock loss to Northampton in the Champions Cup semi-final over the weekend will turn up the pressure on Farrell if his squad is largely Irish in makeup – and it’s hard to see it being any other way. His coaching squad, which has already been named, has five coaches (including Farrell) from the Irish set-up, so it follows logically that they’ll be coaching players they already know. But Leinster haven’t won anything since the 2020-2021 season, and Ireland appeared to come off the boil during the latter part of the Six Nations. As for Owen Farrell, the Herald understands he has at least one big fan in the Lions set-up, although there is a question mark about whether he’d want to subject himself to the heat that would come with his selection.

Why Schmidt will pick Lolesio

Some of the Brumbies’ execution on attack against the Waratahs was beautiful. The shape they run, with Noah Lolesio out the back, is common in the game these days but the Brumbies have the skill level to do it better than the Waratahs at the moment. A big reason for this is the presence of Wallabies trio of Lolesio, Len Ikitau and Tom Wright. They know each other’s games inside out and Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt will surely think long and hard before breaking that up. Yes, Lolesio is heading overseas but as Schmidt referenced last week, he’s not yet lost for the Rugby World Cup. The Brumbies No 10 showed a great appreciation of depth in Canberra – when to hold back and when to go flat.

Australian revival running out of steam

The Super Rugby Pacific ladder looks very different after this weekend’s results, and the anticipated surge from the Blues and Hurricanes came to fruition. The Western Force have looked a touch weary in recent weeks, although one of their big issues throughout the season has been a big, healthy loosehead prop at scrum time. The Waratahs face the Reds, Crusaders, Force and Blues in the last four games, and a home loss to the Reds or Crusaders would be a major blow to their top six hopes. A playoff spot is currently on a knife edge, but this was always going to be the case. Is it time to recall Taniela Tupou to the starting lineup? He appeared to make an immediate difference against the Brumbies’ set-piece.