The Wallabies continued their unbeaten start to the Joe Schmidt reign, accounting for Georgia in Sydney exactly one year out from the First Test of the 2025 British & Irish Lions Tour to Australia.
Somehow, a tour that has been bubbling away on the backburner for more than a decade, is now less than a year away, and with tickets and tour packages all but exhausted, Australia only has that finite time to brace themselves for an almighty sea of red coming their way.
“You’d go get a coffee or, you walk out of the hotel on a Friday just to stretch the legs, and there’s just red jerseys everywhere,” says former Wallabies captain James Horwill. He remembers of 2013 like it was last week.
“Every pub’s full, and for days leading up to match day, it’s almost like they’ve only brought one thing to wear on tour with them. It’s a red jersey or red something.” he says.
“It’s one thing they do very well, the Lions and the fans. There is no question of who they’re there supporting, and they let everyone know from the moment they arrive to the moment they leave.
In 2013, the number of British and Irish rugby fans was said to be more than 30,000.
Next year, 2025, the number is already expected to swell to over 40,000. All match tickets were snapped up within hours for the three Tests, and within days for the remaining six tour games. Official tour packages had smashed records by June this year, months after going on sale.
The Telegraph in the UK reported that the more than 10,000 official travel packages sold at that point “already exceeds the highest number of packages sold for any previous tour despite there still being over a year to go until Andy Farrell’s squad depart for the nine-game tour of Australia.”
“It is more than double the amount of people who travelled to Australia for the tour in 2013.”
‘Tsunami of red’ might be a more applicable measurement of what’s heading to Australia, with many Lions supporters having saved for eight years, with the 2021 Tour to South Africa played without spectators in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“South Africa has always been an easier tour for the Brits probably, because it’s the same time zone,” Horwill proffers. “You know, people can fly in and fly out. You could do a weekend if you really pushed it.”
I probably didn’t appreciate how big it was back in England until I actually lived there and you went to watch it at the pub at 9 o’clock in the morning and it was jammed full.
“You’re not really doing a weekend to Australia. You’re going to go the whole hog if you’re going to do it. And I just think that there’ll be such a pent-up demand of people wanting to come out and support and watch the Lions series. It’s just so different to what’s going on in the UK and Europe, so it’s an opportunity of a lifetime that I know a lot of people will look to take.”
And that’s just in Australia, of course. After his playing days with Queensland and Australia wound up, Horwill played out his career with Harlequins in the English Premiership, his six years with the London club coinciding with the 2017 Lions Tour to New Zealand and the aforementioned ’21 series in South Africa.
“I probably didn’t appreciate how big it was back in England until I actually lived there and you went to watch it at the pub at 9 o’clock in the morning and it was jammed full.
“Test rugby, Six Nations is big, but a Lions series is just a whole different kettle of fish. It’s just such a unique experience,” Horwill recalls.
But more than a decade after he last led Australia out to face the might of the Lions, Horwill’s immediate memory was just how special a Series it was to play.
“It’s more unique than a World Cup because, pretty much you get one crack at playing them,” Horwill explains.
“I think if Slips (James Slipper) plays next year, he’ll be the second to play in two series because Georgie Smith obviously played in 2013. Hoops (Michael Hooper) was probably a chance if he stayed on, because he obviously played in ’13 as well.
“There are some guys that played for Australia that will go down as greats… Nathan Sharpe played 100 Tests, Rugby World Cups, however many Super Rugby games – but never played against the Lions.
Robbie was never big on ceremony or anything like that, he just pulled me inside and goes, ‘mate, you’re going to skipper to the side for the for the Series. I just want you to do what you do and we’re going to tell the guys now’ that that was sort of it.
“For us, it’s once every 12 years. You get one opportunity. I’d say, there’s probably a 90% chance you’re never, ever going to get this opportunity again to play for Australia against the Lions. That’s the enormity of a Lions series and that’s not lost on the players.”
For Horwill, he nearly didn’t get his one chance to face the Lions. After captaining the Wallabies through the 2011 RWC, a major hamstring injury late in the Super Rugby season meant he didn’t play a single Test in 2012.
After he did everything he could to regain fitness and win a Wallabies recall, leading his country again wasn’t exactly something Horwill had considered when coach Robbie Deans pulled him aside one day.
“Robbie was never big on ceremony or anything like that, he just pulled me inside and goes, ‘mate, you’re going to skipper to the side for the for the Series. I just want you to do what you do and we’re going to tell the guys now’ that that was sort of it,” Horwill says. “No big presentation or anything. That was very much Robbie’s style.”
And though Horwill thought he knew about big media packs, having gone through a RWC in New Zealand two years prior, the sheer number of TV cameras, photographers and reporters leading up to the First Test of the 2013 Series was on a different level again.
Where it all began in 2013… 🦁 #Lions2025 pic.twitter.com/rvtGIJ67Lc
— British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) July 19, 2024
“You knew it was a big deal, but you can sort of see the enormity of the media scrum and you quickly realise the scrutiny that was going to come with it.”
He didn’t realise it at that point, but Horwill would soon inherit all that scrutiny to himself.
After the ACT Brumbies inflicted their only lead-up loss days before, the Lions won the First Test in Brisbane 23-21. Israel Folau scored twice on debut for the Wallabies, and George North and Alex Cuthbert crossed for the Lions; the latter exploiting Michael Hooper being forced to play most of the second half in the centres after Australia lost backline players Christian Leali’ifano, Berrick Barnes, and replacement Pat McCabe to injury.
An exchange of penalties brought the Wallabies within two going into the last five minutes. Kurtley Beale had two late penalty opportunities for Australia, but missed both, losing his footing as he made his second attempt with the last kick of the game, a kick Horwill says “he’d make nine times out of ten”.
But the real drama came after the match. Much later than ‘after the match’, in fact. “I remember it very clearly, actually,” Horwill says of his First Test citing that made him the subplot of the series. “I got a call on the hotel room phone. I’m going to say it was 6am or 6.30am on the Sunday. We were traveling to Melbourne that day. I pick it up, and it’s Bobby Edgerton, the team manager, and he says ‘mate, can you get up and get ready and just come down to the team room?’
This is ridiculous. This will get thrown out. There was no way that I’ve done this on purpose. And then, stupidly, I turned on my phone and started looking at the news.
“‘You’ve been cited for an incident last night.’ “And I’m sort of going, what incident? I literally had no idea what he was talking about. And I’m thinking, what have I done? And he says ‘apparently, there’s a stamp. You’ve been cited for stamping’.
“I had no idea. I’m rattling my head going, when did that happen? When did I stamp on someone? Did I do something? “I genuinely was gobsmacked.”
The Lions felt the third minute incident, in which they believed Horwill’s foot made contact to Alun Wyn Jones’ head warranted further attention. But their citing didn’t come through until very late in the citing window. A review of the available footage accompanying the citing proved even more confusing, though it left the Wallabies confident Horwill had no case to answer.
“We looked at the footage and I was like adamant. I’m like, there was no way in hell that I’ve intentionally done this,” Horwill recalled. “This is ridiculous. This will get thrown out. There was no way that I’ve done this on purpose. And then, stupidly, I turned on my phone and started looking at the news.”
And as far as the Lions Series went, Horwill now was the news. The story led all the TV bulletins and the evening edition newspapers in the UK. “The media in the UK got it and just turned the volume up and I was like, ‘oh crap’.”
Initially set for the Monday night in Melbourne, a delay meant the judicial hearing didn’t happen until the Tuesday night, and Horwill says it was like no other judiciary hearing he’d seen before or since.
Though the Wallabies contingent sat in the judiciary room in Melbourne, the Lions remained in Sydney and dialled in. They could hear Horwill’s testimony, and he theirs, and the panel could see reactions. Footage was viewed and reviewed constantly, as claims were made and countered and contradicted as required.
The remoteness of it all proved difficult when determining whether who had access to what footage and what camera angles, and the whole thing took several hours.
“We were in two rooms,” Horwill explained of the process and the hearing. “There was a main room, and there was a holding room. We couldn’t go outside the room because all the press was there.”
“So they wouldn’t let us go out until there was a decision, but no one made a decision. I’m sitting there for, I reckon, four hours.”
Horwill was cleared, got back into preparations properly on the Wednesday, and then… more bad news. The then International Rugby Board decided – again, at the last minute – to appeal the decision to clear Horwill to an independent panel. “The only saving grace was it’s too close to the game, so we were told they’re going to let you play,” Horwill said.
“It was very hard, particularly because of the scrutiny that came with it. First of all, the decision to clear me, there was obviously complete uproar in the United Kingdom and Ireland around that, then with the appeal.
“So, again, a huge barrage came my way on socials and people in the street and stuff. I was getting peppered. And then my family were getting peppered, all this sort of stuff. It wasn’t pleasant.”
And Horwill’s reaction on full-time in Melbourne was visceral. The Wallabies won the Second Test 16-15, after Adam Ashley-Cooper scored the only try of the game in the 74th minute, and a Halfpenny penalty attempt in the last minute fell short. With the Series levelled, Horwill’s outburst was equal parts emotion and concern.
“I probably thought at that point, they’re not appealing it to uphold it. You’re not appealing it to let me get off again so I’m cooked here. That’s me done and I won’t have an opportunity to lead my country to potentially win a Lions series.”
The Australian squad again travelled on the Sunday, and would begin preparations for the Third and deciding Test on the Monday. But with independent appeal officer Graeme Mew based in Canada, the appeal couldn’t be held until the Monday night.
The appeal hearing lasted several hours, before Mew went away to deliberate. But the time zones meant that it was Tuesday afternoon before he ultimately upheld the original decision, saying there had been “no misapprehension of law or principle” proven and no evidence that the acquittal was unreasonable.
“There was sufficient evidence upon which a reasonable judicial officer could have reached the decision that was made,” Mew said of the original ruling in Horwill’s favour. The IRB’s appeal of its own judiciary’s not guilty decision – something the governing body had never appealed before at that point – was thrown out.
Horwill trained for two days for a Test Match he wasn’t completely confident he’d be able to play, before learning he was finally clear.
“It was relief. It was sort of like, oh, thank God,” he said. And then I think the first thing I said to Bob Edgerton was, ‘they can’t appeal again, can they?’”
The Lions made six changes for the final match in Australia. Tour captain Sam Warburton and 2009 captain Paul O’Connell were both injured, and Welsh coach Warren Gatland invited plenty of criticism and controversy by dropping Irish rugby royalty in Brian O’Driscoll, who was widely expected to take over the captaincy, in favour of the Welsh combination of Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies. With the series on the line, Gatland named ten Welshmen in in his starting side.
Australia, conversely, made just the one change with the return to international rugby after four years of the great George Smith at openside flanker.
“I just remember our strategy that week was to really back right off on the training,” Horwill said. “We said, let’s just freshen up. We’ll save all our powder for the Saturday. And we did very light sessions, not a lot of contact. It probably didn’t hit with us, didn’t sit right in hindsight.”
Alex Corbisiero scored early for the Lions, and then the Wallabies were pushed further onto the back foot when Halfpenny started kicking penalties from everywhere. Australia conceded scrum penalties and a yellow card, but did well to get back to 19-16 down soon after halftime.
But Johnny Sexton, North and Roberts all crossed in the space of 12 minutes, as the Lions ran up a record points tally in any Test to win 41-16. Man-of-the-match Halfpenny finished with 21 points, a new individual record for a Lions Test at the time.
“Ultimately, Warren made the right call, because they won,” Horwill said, the disappointment in that Third Test performance still evident eleven years later.
“We didn’t get to hold the cup at the end and that’s sort of the scar that lives with you for the rest of your career.
We’re obviously going through some challenges at the moment from a code perspective, but you can’t tell me the code’s in trouble when you see every ticket’s basically sold. You could sell two stadiums twice over for every Test, all the hospitality sold out, too.
“You know, if I could have one game in my whole career that I could do over again, it’d be that game. It would definitely be that Third Test against the Lions in 2013.
Do-overs aside, Horwill is excited by the prospect of no longer having played the most recent Lions Series in Australia, and just as the 2001 squad did for his team, can’t wait to see the current generational of Wallabies getting their shot at a unique piece of rugby history.
“I’m just so pumped for the guys that get the opportunity because it is such a huge occasion, but also, what it could do for rugby in this country,” he says.
“We’re obviously going through some challenges at the moment from a code perspective, but you can’t tell me the code’s in trouble when you see every ticket’s basically sold. You could sell two stadiums twice over for every Test, all the hospitality sold out, too. It’s like there is a there is a lifeblood underneath it.
“I’m just looking forward to the occasion because it is special and it’s something that I think will put rugby back on the map in this country.”
Head in sand if you think rugby in AU will be fixed or is in fine fettle. Junior grassroots participation is falling of a cliff.
Thanks , Brett. It will be a very powerful Lions team, but the WB’s will be stronger too, would be my feeling. I don’t see it being all one way traffic.
The BILs fans are coming in record numbers because they smell a clean sweep of all matches. Joe Schmidt’s 2 year brief is to build the Wallabies in preparation for this series, & send the invaders packing. Interesting & exciting times ahead for Aussie rugby.