‘It shits me’: Nick Farr-Jones’ nagging Lions regret
Darren Walton |
World Cup-winning captain Nick Farr-Jones has ranked the pain of never winning a series against the British and Irish Lions as probably the biggest regret of his celebrated career and urged the Wallabies to seize the moment in Saturday’s first Test in Brisbane.
Farr-Jones says even 36 years after leading Australia to a 2-1 series loss to the Lions, he still tosses and turns about missing his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to conquer the best of the British and Irish.
“Yeah, it shits me,” Farr-Jones told AAP. “When the Lions come down, only once every 12 years, you get one roll of the dice. And if I’ve got any damn regrets about the game looking back, it’s that we didn’t beat the bastards.”
After crushing the tourists 30-12 in the 1989 first Test, the Wallabies lost the infamous “Battle of Ballymore” 19-12 as the Lions mauled them in Brisbane to level the series.
Despite only suffering a seven-point loss, it was the manner in which the Wallabies succumbed in the brutal second Test that gives Farr-Jones nightmares.
The Lions hatched a plan to monster Australia’s halfback and captain into submission.
“And it worked a treat,” he admitted.
Farr-Jones said cheekily winking and blowing a kiss at Lions hooker Brian Moore early on in the game was a big mistake.
“He proceeded to rip me apart after that and all the other forwards ripped into me,” he said.
“They had a pack which included three policemen, three bobbies – (Wade) Dooley, (Paul) Ackford, (Dean) Richards – as well as Finlay Calder, ‘Mad Dog’ Moore.
“I think the only probably non-fighter in that pack was David Sole, the Scottish prop.
“You had Mickey Skinner. It was a tough, hard pack and they would have sat around two weeks before the first and the second Test, and they would have said, ‘What are we going to do?’
“Let’s beat the crap out of them, and how about we start with the captain.
“He’s a little guy. We can beat the crap out of him. His game will implode, the team will unravel around him and in a way it sort of happened.
“So I commend them for the tactics.”
Farr-Jones pointed out that the likes of two-time World Cup-winning Wallabies legends Tim Horan and Phil Kearns never got a crack at the Lions and hopes Joe Schmidt’s class of 2025 realise the opportunity in front of them.
Because he still regrets his 1989 side not taking their chance in a 2-1 series-deciding third-Test loss in Sydney, when the defining moment of the 19-18 near-miss remains David Campese’s wild pass to Greg Martin in the Australian in-goal area that led to the Lions’ winning try.
“So, looking back, the cracks in the ceiling would get wider at three in the morning because we should have won that series. There’s no doubt about that, and we butchered it,” Farr-Jones recalls.
“And I’m not talking about Campo’s incident or what have you. We had 79 other minutes in which to win that game.
“We should never have lost it. You wake up and you really regret it because, as came to pass in World Cups, we got a second roll of the dice.”
Farr-Jones AM achieved just about every major honour in rugby.
He helped the Wallabies complete the fabled grand slam tour in 1984
with victories over England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, also
featured in triumphant Bledisloe Cup series against New Zealand and
crowned his career by hoisting the Webb Ellis Cup next to the Queen at
Twickenham in 1991.
The only other career disappointments that come close
to losing to the Lions was not winning a first grade premiership in 14
seasons with Sydney University and seeing his great friend and
teammate Tim Gavin miss the `91 World Cup through injury.
