‘Win a grand slam’: The Lions is the biggest tour in 12 years

Laurie Fisher says the Wallabies are looking forward to getting an early insight into what’s to come ahead of next year’s Lions series, but the older statesman of Australian rugby says the group can’t – and shouldn’t – look past the opportunity of claiming a first grand slam since 1984.

Given what’s on the horizon, most, including Joe Schmidt, whose contract only takes him through to next July’s series, have been fixated on the Lions.

But lost in anticipation of the series, which rotates every four years between Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, has been next month’s crucial potential momentum-building tour of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

The tour represents the chance to repeat the feat last achieved by Alan Jones’ side of 1984, where Mark Ella inspired the Wallabies to a grand slam and a bunch of fresh faces, including Nick Farr-Jones and Michael Lynagh, took giant steps towards greatness.

Having been written off ahead of next year’s Lions series following a reality-check 1-5 Rugby Championship campaign, the tour represents the chance to silence some critics.

Indeed, it was only a month ago that England’s pundits stated the famous side should ditch Australia and return to South Africa to take on the back-to-back world champions to ensure a competitive series took place.

“I’m looking at and thinking the Lions are better off going to South Africa and touring there. Given that the last time they went there was no fans allowed,” England great Ben Youngs said.

Asked whether the tour represented a chance to prove a few people wrong, Fisher opted not to bite and instead said it was a fantastic opportunity to learn a lot about themselves and their opponents.

“Well, it’s certainly an opportunity to get a good look at Northern Hemisphere rugby, which is what we’ll be experiencing on the Lions tour,” said Fisher, who was Dave Rennie’s assistant the last time the Wallabies toured the United Kingdom and Ireland in 2022.

“We’re playing the four teams that’ll make up that squad, so it’s a great opportunity to get an insight. We’ve had 16 debutants so far this year. A lot of them haven’t played Northern Hemisphere style of rugby, so it’s fantastic preparation.”

Fisher was eager to stress though that the tour wasn’t simply about finding out things ahead of next year’s Lions series.

“I mean, they’re stand-alone Tests,” he said.

“They’re games that you want to win. It’s a grand slam tour.

“You don’t want to look too far ahead, but it’s an opportunity for us to get better and to experience Northern Hemisphere rugby and to win a grand slam.”

After a rapid-fire nine Tests in three months, where the Wallabies hold a 4-5 win-loss record, this week’s training sessions are the first under Schmidt where they have been able to get down to business without having to prepare for a Test match on the weekend.

The Wallabies will spend another couple of weeks in Australia before flying out to London in early October.

Fisher, who was right at home with the whistle around his neck in his backyard in Canberra, said the timing of the camp came not a second too late.

“Every week’s been a Test week primarily, and it’s hard to do enough work to make genuine progress when you’re preparing for Saturday,” the former Brumbies coach said.

“So it’s been a real opportunity to go a bit longer, dig a bit deeper, and really pinpoint areas that will take us to where we need to go.”

Although some promising detail has returned to the Wallabies’ game under Schmidt, his new-look group have been exposed at times by some of the world’s best nations.

Indeed, the Springboks conceded just one try against Schmidt’s side, while Los Pumas racked up a record score in their second match on tour in Argentina after a horror second half where their defensive system broke down.

Those defensive struggles, as well as an inability to win possession, were once again exposed against the All Blacks at times during their Bledisloe series defeat.

Fisher, whose responsibility is taking care of the defensive pattern of play and the breakdown, said the coaching group weren’t needing to blow up sections of the game but rather just add some detail around the pictures they were seeing to ensure they came out on top.

“There’s lots of work-ons,” Fisher said. “It’s generally about the accuracy and the quality with which we do things.

“We don’t believe we need to make wholesale changes either side of the ball. We’ve got to make improvements in our kick-chase game, improvements in the quality of our attack, and improvements in how we connect and defend together. But I don’t believe that we need to change anything.

“We just need to clearly make sure everybody understands, and they do, what we need to improve on and how we go about improving, and yesterday and today is part of that process.”

Fisher said the selection picture remained far from certain, but said Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii would definitely tour with either the Wallabies or Australia XV, who will play Bristol and England A over successive weekends.

“Well, he’ll definitely be on the tour,” Fisher said. “Which side he’ll be in or started, I’m not certain at this stage, but he’ll definitely be over there, and he’s obviously a huge part of the plan moving forward.”

Asked what he had made of Suaalii, Fisher said he was impressed by the former Australian Schoolboy’s desire to keep things simple.

“He’s a really nice young man. He’s an excellent athlete. He’s a quick learner, and he’s hungry to be successful, and he doesn’t want to overcomplicate the game, which fits in nicely with what we want to do,” he said.

“We talk a lot about eyes and feet, about being able to see the threats in defence, the opportunities in attack, and then use your feet to get to where you need to go, and that suits him down to the ground. It’s not about point A to point B to point C, it’s about opportunities and threats, shutting them down, opening them up, and I think he’ll be fantastic at that.”