- guardian.co.uk, Sunday July 1 2001 02.17 BST
This country is the size of Jupiter and you can tell how vast that is because, when the Aussies wanted to give a name to the biggest thing in their lives, the dearest thing to their hearts, it's what they decided to call a chain of casinos. They do love a flutter over here. The point is, though, that in a country this enormous, you might have thought it relatively simple to keep the Lions and the Wallabies apart. Especially after what happened in Sydney last week. But no, the two camps found themselves lodging all of a mile-and-a-half apart in little old Coffs Harbour last week.
The Wallabies have been sponsored by the town's Pacific Bay Resort for a couple of years now, and come here for all their Test preparations. The Lions booked into the Novotel Opal Cove Resort in preparation for their last outing, against the New South Wales Country Cockatoos, before yesterday's Test. As you can tell, darn it, by the very nomenclature, Coffs is a country and western sort of place, with a shoreline. All we needed was for Owen Finnegan to bump into Danny Grewcock in the Hog's Breath Saloon for everything to kick off again. They didn't and that red-hot Saturday in Sydney threatened to turn into a grey Sunday.
John Eales, bouncing a baby on either knee and handing over his laundry at reception, said that the fight had come as a real shock. 'It was all kind of weird,' he said. Rod Macqueen, coach of the Wallabies, said sanity would surely prevail in the Tests.
The Lions were too busy counting their casualties to launch an offensive. Scott Gibbs and Tyrone Howe were already on their way out as replacements for Mike Catt and Dan Luger. Will Greenwood was not going home but he was out of contention for the first Test and was hobbling around on crutches. Now it was reported that Lawrence Dallaglio's tour was over, his knee having been rendered wobbly again by a blow in the Waratahs game. Robin McBryde had a new bruise on his old dead-leg and Keith Wood had an unspecified knee injury. David Wallace had been sent for as cover for Dallaglio; Dorian West for the hookers. And grey Sunday turned into black Monday.
On a rare afternoon off, some of the players went whale-watching, some played golf and others went to bed. Neil Back went jogging. The press, lodging at the Wallabies' resort, were waiting for a more detailed medical update from James Robson, the Lions doctor, at 4.30pm. He did not leave the Opal Cove resort. Anton Toia was one of two Australian Rugby Union liaison officers with the tourists.
Basically he was a baggage-master, but Anton had been doing this job for 30 years and was more than just a porter. Anybody who had ever been to Australia knew Anton. The former front-rower was a friendly fixture, a part of rugby life here. He had been whale-watching and had jumped into the sea 50 or so yards off-shore. He had swum to the beach and with the water up to his waist had turned to wave at the Lions still on the boat. They had waved back. Two minutes later, he was face down in the water. Two local surfers pulled him on to the beach but he was already dead of a heart-attack.
The Lions requested to wear black arm bands the next day. A minute's silence was observed for Anton. The Lions beat the Cockatoos comfortably, but without any zip. It was a grey game on a blue afternoon, the first time they had played in sunshine and not under floodlights. Scott Gibbs announced himself forcibly in the centre and poor Iain Balshaw had another twitchy day at full-back. The player who lit up the Six Nations with his running has become the most obvious victim of a loss of form and confidence on tour. On Tuesday he played himself out of the Test team.
It was good to leave Coffs Harbour, although Dorian West made a belated, dead-pan effort to lighten the mood at the press conference after the game. He was asked where he was when he received the call. He said he had just landed in Minorca with the wife and kids. The call came at six o'clock. He drove them to the villa they had booked and by eight o'clock, and still in his sandals and shorts, was on a plane bound for Frankfurt, then Australia. How had his wife taken it? 'Well, I have to say she was a bit upset,' said Dorian.
No, it was good to be back in Brisbane. The city was bracing itself for a triple-whammy of sport. On Friday it was Aussie Rules: the Brisbane Lions against Hawthorne at the Gabba. At midnight they would remark the playing surface for the rugby union Test. And today there would be a change of venue for the decider of the rugby league State of Origin series at the ANZ Stadium. A bonanza of sport even if the guaranteed tropical winter sunshine was to give way to rain. Yes, it was grey. The storm clouds came rolling in.
The Aussie media were suddenly all over town, although you have to say that they were outnumbered 500 to one by the Lions supporters who were filling every bar and bed in town. Let's say 15,000 punters, bringing an estimated A$10million into the city, against 30 journos trying to reignite the flames. 'They say, Graham,' one of them asked the Lions coach at the final press briefing on Friday, 'that you are in charge of the most unfriendly Lions ever. They call you the Grumpy Lions. What's your reaction to that?' 'An absolute load of rubbish,' said Graham Henry as po-faced as West. 'Is that grumpy enough for you?' Not bad for a coach, who, as they say in Jupiter casinos the size of Australia, was about to take the biggest gamble of his career.
