With the sequence now carried out and the prospect of a 3-0 clear sweep on the playing cards in Sydney on Saturday, the talk about Australia’s place on the Lions’ rota could reignite if the Lions do go on and make it three.

Ought to they be dropped? Ought to carrots be dangled in entrance of the French golf equipment to see in the event that they need to be a part of the rota, possibly as a substitute for Australia and even along with Australia?

The poor state of Wallaby rugby, Saturday’s emotional response aside, is just one part of this. The opposite half is commerce. Observe the cash, as they are saying. The cities and stadiums in Australia are extraordinary in scale and quantity and the followers love coming right here. As ever, the pink military has travelled in power.

The Lions performed in entrance of simply over 90,000 on the MCG on Saturday, the largest crowd they’ve ever carried out in entrance of. The second-biggest was in 1955 in Johannesburg. The third and fourth greatest have been in Sydney in 2001 and 2013.

Lions followers – and ex-pats – get behind a tour of Australia and it doesn’t appear to trouble them unduly that they’re watching a succession of straightforward wins. It isn’t like Australia have all of the sudden turn into common. They have been common when Lions followers hoovered up journey packages at large expense. They have been coming, whatever the competitiveness of the contests.

The 2017 tour of New Zealand had a mean crowd of 34,327 throughout 10 video games. The final (regular, as in no Covid) tour of South Africa was in 2009 and it had a mean crowd of 34,793. Even earlier than the lots descended on the MCG, this tour was averaging 40,364 per sport.

Put it one other approach – when a terrific New Zealand crew took the Lions to the cleaners in 2005, the mixed attendance for the primary two Exams was lower than the whole quantity on the MCG. Australia has the stadium capability to go bigger and make extra income than every other tour. So long as that’s the case, the Lions will all the time come right here. It is the financial system, silly.

And it’s 2-0 to the Lions, as we anticipated in a single sense, however by no means what we anticipated in one other.

Thrilling and coronary-inducing – precisely correctly.