How big a call would it be to start Tom Lynagh at flyhalf in a Test against the Lions at this stage of his career?
Too big a call.
Before I go on, let me just say that I’m a proud Queenslander. And Lynagh is the form flyhalf in Australian rugby right now, arguably in all of Super Rugby.
He is as natural a 10 as we’ve had since well, Michael Lynagh. That’s not to say he’s a better player than Stephen Larkham or Bernard Foley, not yet anyway.
But he’s not a converted fullback or part time centre. There’s no utility in his positional description. The erratic, at best enigmatic nature of say the ‘Three Amigos’ for example, is nowhere to be found in his game either.
For a bloke who surely must be 80kg dripping wet he has a big boot and an even bigger heart. He’s tough but silky smooth in skill execution. His option taking is good, he offloads and catches the ball moving. He is the real deal.
But he’s just not ready to start at 10 for the Wallabies against the Lions in 2025.
If we start with the most obvious point, Lynagh has only three Test caps and just two points to his name.
While some of that international inexperience may be offset by, say, Tate McDermott starting inside of him and Hunter Paisami outside, there’s no guarantee. And Lynagh would still be a player with well under 200 minutes of Test footy under his belt.
Additionally, and let’s call it out for what it is, we’ve seen opposition deliberately target Lynagh both legally and illegally for more than a year now. It’s very obviously coached.
Some of the illegal shots are mistimed or poorly executed legal ones. Others are just cheap ‘dog’ shots.
Twenty or thirty years ago those might have been dealt with at the bottom of a ruck.
In 1974 the Lions themselves introduced a ‘99’ call to protect their skill players from thuggery. Geez, we couldn’t have that nowadays. The TMOs might be out of a job. Or worse, the 99 Call would be replayed from 15 angles while the footage of the original offence is lost for eternity.
But I digress. Andy Farrell, Big Faz, father of Little Faz, spent way too much time in Wigan to have missed Lynagh’s head almost being taken off this month by a shoulder charge in the land where television replays ceased to exist.
The Lions will also send an endless stream of traffic in Lynagh’s direction and he will tackle his guts out, no doubt. He’s got ticker.
Tom Lynagh. (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)
If the battering he takes in the process doesn’t do the job, there’s a high chance we’ll lose Lynagh to a concussion. The Lions have more shoulder chargers, I mean back rowers to burn, than even the Kiwis do.
How much damage would that kind of battering do to the development of Lynagh in the long run? And by long I mean the two years between the Lions Tour and a home Rugby World Cup.
At just over 22 years old, by my estimation Lynagh would become the youngest starter at 10 in a Test match against the Lions this century. Possibly ever.
For context, when Tom Lynagh was born in April 2003, ‘In Da Club’ by 50 Cent had knocked Delta Goodrem off the top of the charts and Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake was lurking.
Dan Carter was 23 years and 3 months old when he started in the first Test back on 25 June 2005. He was also the greatest fly-half of the modern era and had some blokes called Marshall, Mauger and Umaga starting with him.
Carter was a mere baby when you think Stephen Larkham was 27 years old back in 2001. Morne Steyn and Ruan Pienaar were both over 25 years old with dozens of Test caps each in 2009 as was Beauden Barrett in 2017.
Finn Russell, the likely starter at flyhalf for the Lions will be 6-8 kg heavier than Lynagh for the series, probably due to being 11 years older.
All of this is quite before the issue of Noah Lolesio.
I’ve seen enough to be convinced that I’m unconvinced. There’s a clamor to see him go that suggests many people feel more strongly.
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
But the fact is that he is the Wallaby incumbent and played well above expectations on the Northern Hemisphere Tour last year. The Wallabies went well against England and Ireland especially.
To demote Lolesio, to drop him for a 22 year old with 3 Test caps weeks ahead of the second biggest event in Rugby Union, is just not something that Joe Schmidt will or should do.
If it was a good idea to start a 22 year old flyhalf with 3 caps against the Lions then someone would have done it by now.
Unless something very dramatic happens, Tom Lynagh will take over the reins of the Wallabies in 2026, probably under Les Kiss. Not before.
W Evanshttps://https://ift.tt/MT4f7PJ Lynagh is the form No.10 in Super Rugby. But starting him against the Lions is a risk Schmidt won’t take
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