That Australian rugby has fallen off a cliff should be a concern to all of us who love the British and Irish Lions who are due to tour there next summer.

The latest Aussie horror show under head coach Joe Schmidt came in Santa Fe where they lost by a record score of 67 points to 27 to Argentina. It was the most points ever conceded by an Australian side and their second-heaviest defeat of all time. No wonder the Sydney Morning Herald put a headline on a column about the loss that read : “Up Schmidt creek.’’

They play the All Blacks in Sydney on Saturday. That could be very messy. They take on Scotland at Murrayfield in November and based on their present dismal form they should be brushed aside with ease by Gregor Townsend’s team.

The continued demise of Aussie rugby matters -they exited the 2023 World Cup at the group stages and have won just one out of four matches so far in the Rugby Championship - because for a Lions Test series to be successful there must be credible opposition. That is not the case just now. You need full grounds and a big travelling support expecting to see an epic battle. Who wants to spend a lot of money flying from the UK to Australia for a series of one-sided games?

Can you imagine what damage a Lions team with Finn Russell at ten and Duhan van der Merwe on the wing would do to the present Aussie side?

They are just two of the Scots I expect to be definitely picked by Lions head coach Andy Farrell the others being Zander Fagerson and Blair Kinghorn. Provided he remains injury-free and has a good season for Edinburgh and Scotland Darcy Graham should be on the flight as he will give the Lions attack a point of difference. Ben White, Sione Tuipulotu, Jack Dempsey and Rory Darge should all be in the mix for selection.

Scotland deserve to have a decent number of players picked for the Lions but they will want to be properly tested.

For that to happen the Aussies need to improve on so many fronts. First, they must find an inspirational leader. The days of Michael Hooper, John Eales and Michael Lynagh are long gone. Front row James Slipper, who won his 139th cap off the bench a record number that he shares with George Gregan- in the defeat to Argentina, is the only inspirational figure in the current squad but he is 35 years old and may not be picked to take on the Lions.

Entertainers who could change a game with one side step such as David Campese, Mark Ella and joint cap record holder Gregan are also missing from the present set up. If there is a saviour it could be 21-year-old Joseph Suaalii who is switching codes from rugby league with the Sydney Roosters to rugby union but has yet to play a game for Australia.

Former Welsh international Ieuan Evans who is chairman of the Lions board and their chief executive Ben Calveley knows that many rugby fans and lots more professional club owners in England now look on their tours as an anachronism that should have been stopped years ago. They believe there are enough games in the calendar without the elite going on an extra tour once every four years. Some are looking for an excuse to knock the idea of the Lions and an easy three-Test whitewash over Australia will strengthen their argument.

Read more: 

Having a decent Australian team is also vital for the future of the sport down under. The governing body has a yearly deficit of £4.6m which is not bad when compared to the SRU’s £10.5m and having the Lions tour there- three Tests and six matches against provincial sides- will help them balance the books.

Ironically Dave Rennie’s success at Glasgow Warriors that led to him being appointed Australia head coach was when the rot set in. He started well but as results got worse he was sacked in 2023 after three years in charge. Next up was Eddie Jones who was even worse and who resigned after just nine months to take over as the head coach of Japan.

Surely the experience Joe Schmidt, who had brought success to Ireland as their head coach, would steady the ship? Australia beat Georgia, then the worst Welsh team in living memory under him before being found out big time. South Africa beat them twice and although they did manage to sneak past Argentina with a last-minute penalty kick in La Plata they hit their low point the following week in Santa Fe when they were mauled by the Pumas leaving Australian rugby at one of its lowest points in its history.

They will have to improve drastically in a very short time to give the Lions a run for their money and there isn’t any new players apart from Suaalii knocking on the door that can make a breakthrough before the Lions arrive.

It is sad to see Australian rugby in such a state because they have been fighting a losing battle -even when they had great sides that won World Cups- to capture the attention of the Aussie public.

It first dawned on me how far down the pecking order rugby union is in Australia when I covered Scotland’s 2012 tour there. Ahead of the opening game in Newcastle, New South Wales there was only a few paragraphs in all the national newspapers as a preview. The State Of Origin rugby league match between Queensland and New South Wales dominated the headlines closely followed by lots of column inches on Aussie Rules. Add in big cricket, tennis, swimming and football reports and it showed that when Scotland played Australia at rugby union there was not terribly much interest. Ironically the match - Greig Laidlaw kicked the winning penalty in torrential rain- got more headlines than usual because Joe Ansbro and Alasdair Strokosch bumped heads in celebration that led to lots of blood which made good pictures for the Aussie press.

Granted when South Africa and New Zealand play the Wallabies there will be a lot more column inches but rugby union remains to this day a minority sport in Australia with latest statistics stating it is the ninth most popular in the country.

Their recent poor form won’t do anything to encourage young Aussies to take up the game which is why I am hoping for some sort of revival in rugby union down under. They are fallen to ninth in the world rankings -Scotland are in sixth- which is not where they want to be.

Clearly I want the Lions to win the Tests but let’s hope the Aussies can put up a decent display and the three match series isn’t a whitewash. As things stand I wouldn’t bet against that happening.