Why?
They will attract 370000 fans to 9 games over 5 weeks and they are run by the IRB

The paucity of northern hemisphere talent was brought into full focus against the Brumbies. Calling Shane Williams out of international retirement to pull on a Lions jersey was embarrassing.

Why so many warm up games ? Oh yeah,, to fill up the ARU's coffers after the dreadful decisions made in Australian rugby this last 10 years. Fair play to them, they know how to milk an event.

There has been an awful lot of hype around this Lions squad and their opportunity for greatness. I have to say, they may be brought down to earth with a real bump on Saturday. The tour has not gained any momentum and they have played some under strength teams along the way

Can’t read anything into the Brumbies game from a test perspective as none of the players will be featuring but I guess what you can read into it is that the second string team from the whole British Iles can’t beat the second string team from an Aussie province (worrying)

Regarding the test teams, a lot of noise is being made of the quality of the Lions backs and wingers in particular but many Lions fans are underestimating the Wallaby backs. North is a real quality player but Cuthbert is a weak link in defence and in Digby Ioane and Israel Falou the Aussies have two very physical wingers who are every bit as good as the Lions going forward. Add to that the fact that Jonathan Davies in the centres has the worst passing game of any professional rugby centre I have ever seen and I don’t expect the Lions wings to get too many chances

Looks to me like the Lions are looking to boss the game in the forwards and win the thing through territory and penalties – could work but if the game opens up at all I think the Aussies may pull them apart

You're right - the Aussies will take them to the cleaners if they manage to turn the game into anything more than a forwards-based grind fest. The Lions lack of creativity was severely exposed at Canberra.

Then again, we can't look past the fact that the backs had barely trained together and included a veteran playing pub footy in Japan. They'll go better next time.

The Lions have lost to provincial sides in the past and then won the tour - cannot write them off yet.

Aussies are 8/1 to win 3-0. I am very tempted by that

That might be good for the ARU but the home nations may see it differently. If they are playing weekend mid week teams that do nothing too help prepare for the tests, are no contest and leading to large numbers of injuries. . That allied to national tours, league games, 6 nations,heineken cup etc means the the top players are playing a lot of games and not having much of a rest. That appears to be taking a toll with lots of players retiring due to injury etc.
I could see the home nations saying it is not worth it

Israel Folau first try scorer tomorrow at 12/1 is tempting

This Folau kid looks great, could do a job in League for sure.

What's next for Folau, he's played League, AFL and now union. Can the Aussies still draft him into the Ashes cricket squad?

Well the Lions won, but the Australians should have.
Some very disturbing lack of tackling from the Lions in the first half down our left wing ... what the fook was Mike Phillips doing for Australia's first try????
Standing off tackles instead of moving forward to tackle.
Standing still instead of running in to receive the pass on attack.
Very basic errors, very poor!
How many kicks did Australia miss ... four or five?
We missed one.
No brainer, they deserved to win.
But I think we are a better side, but once again led by people that are too conservative.

It felt throughout the game like Australia would blow us away any moment if they just stepped up a gear, but it never happened. Lions have to improve, but they could do it.

Hungover In Brisbane with 4 days to kill till origin and this is not a cheap town to drink in!
Best team lost last night........fear of losing is killing the lions

Five changes to the Lions side for the second Test.

Although some enforced by injury, an acknowledgement from Gatland that they got out of jail last Saturday?

Shocking second test IMO, good tension but quality-wise abysmal. Perfectly set up for the decider though..