Former Test star David Giffin has delivered a stirring speech to have the Wallabies pumped for Saturday night’s series-deciding showdown with the British and Irish Lions in Sydney.
Giffin, a member of Australia’s 2001 Lions series-winning line-up who has lived through the heartache of his son suffering from cancer, presented the jerseys to Robbie Deans’ men on Friday and almost moved one former Wallaby to tears.
Taking a leaf out of Steve Waugh’s book, the Wallabies are also privately using mental disintegration tactics, refusing to refer to the tourists as Lions and dubbing Warren Gatland’s outfit “Wales”.
Gatland’s starting XV features 10 Welshman, but the Wallabies have beaten the Six Nations champions in eight straight Tests over the past two-and-a-half years.
“This is a different team. We’ve had 40 different players involved and different back-room staff as well,” said the Lions’ Welsh centre Jonathan Davies.
“The Welsh team hasn’t beaten Australia for a long time, but this team beat Australia two weeks ago.
“So we’ve got a good attitude in training this week and we’re looking to do the job on Saturday.”
The 2001 Wallabies referred to the Martin Johnson-led Lions as “England” before completing a come-from-behind 2-1 series victory.
After also losing to New Zealand in 2005 and South Africa in 2009, the Lions are now facing the grim prospect of suffering four straight series defeats for the first time in their 125-year history.
“It’s is a do-or-die match and we’re fully up for it,” said winger Tommy Bowe, who admitted the Lions were too passive in their 16-15 second-Test loss in Melbourne last Saturday.
Coach Gatland has reacted by naming the biggest possible men.
“We have to play rugby,” Bowe said.
“Last week we did so much defending we were on the back foot an awful lot.
“Certainly there’s huge ball carriers there and, if we can hold onto the ball, keep battering over the top of the Aussies, hopefully it will cause a bit of damage.”
Bowe said the Lions were also drawing inspiration from Brian O’Driscoll and how the Irish centre legend had responded so manfully to his shock axing from the series decider.
“For someone to take such a knock like that, it would be very easy for him to go off tour now and go off on the lash (drink),” O’Driscoll’s countryman Bowe said.
“Everybody knows the disappointment that he has from not being involved.
“But for a guy like that, such a presence he has around the squad, for him to be really rallying around the team, to be really wanting us to push on to win the series, it’s a huge motivation for us to come out and do the job for him as well.”
