As Rugby Australia’s executives defended the Wallabies’ strategic planning for the Lions series, former Test playmaker Matt To’omua has urged the governing body to take ownership of their failures and learn from their slow start to the once-every-12-year event.

After being smashed out of the blocks in Brisbane to lose the first Test, the Wallabies made a stirring comeback the deeper the series went.

Joe Schmidt’s men were controversially beaten on the bell by a last-minute try in Melbourne, before denying Andy Farrell’s Lions in Sydney with a stunning 22-12 victory in front of more than 80,000 spectators.

But the comeback was too little, too late, with the series over by the time the two teams arrived in Sydney.

After they were described as “too nice” in the first Test, the Wallabies’ comeback was built off the back of a renewed sense of physicality and the availability of key forwards – namely Will Skelton and Rob Valetini, the back-to-back John Eales Medallist, who was limited to just 40 minutes of action across the three Tests after a niggly calf injury.

One of the criticisms around the planning for the series was that the Wallabies had just one Test to prepare for the Lions on July 6 – a Test that fell a fortnight before the series opener, where the Wallabies scraped home against Fiji to atone for their shock defeat at the World Cup in 2023.

But as the Lions enjoyed their six-match lead-in to the series against the Wallabies, Schmidt’s men had no other games.

Nor did Schmidt take advantage of the AUNZ fixture in Adelaide, with no one from the current Wallabies squad for the Lions series selected in the Les Kiss-coached Invitational side that was smashed.

Will Skelton missed the first Test in Brisbane despite saying he was “raring to go” and proved pivotal in the Wallabies’ surging fightback throughout the series. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Following the Sydney Test, Schmidt said he felt that the Wallabies built as the series progressed.

“The one thing I would say is I felt we grew through the series,” he said in his post-match press conference.

“We lost the first half of the series poorly. We won the second half. We played well in the first half of the second Test. Didn’t succeed eventually in that Test, but I felt we deserved to win both halves today.”

Given the improvement on the field, it led to Schmidt being asked whether he felt like they were a run short heading into Brisbane and if he held any regrets.

“I guess it just is what it is,” he said. “Again, I’m not great at looking back and having regrets. I’m just trying to plan a way forward.

“With the Super Rugby finishing when it did, even then we didn’t get the Brumbies back until quite late before we played that Fijian game. By the time we’d done that, we lost Noah [Lolesio]. That was a pretty big loss for us, but Tom Lynagh did such a fantastic job making his starting debut for the Wallabies in those three Tests.

“I’m not really going to look back at maybes. I’m just going to try to take a breath and then think about what’s next in The Rugby Championship.”

Rugby Australia high performance director Peter Horne has defended the Wallabies’ pre-series preparations. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images for Rugby Australia)

Rugby Australia high performance director Peter Horne said there was a feeling that the nation’s Super Rugby franchises would go deeper into the tournament when he was similarly asked whether they regretted not organising another fixture.

“We had a plan that we thought that a lot of the clubs would go deep in the (Super Rugby Pacific) finals,” Horne told a group of Australian reporters following the series.

“We put a bit of fat into that to make sure that that happened. We were really clear around the type of team that we wanted and we thought that Fiji was the appropriate warm-up team to play: physicality, an ability to put us under pressure – and they did, and Scotland felt that the following week.

“There are ifs and buts, but in terms of the collective buy-in that we had at the start of last year from the Super Rugby clubs through to the Wallabies team, we had a 50-man managed group, so we had really good collective alignment.

“We’ll review and we’ll have a look at it, and whether we should have added another game.

“It’s pretty raw at the moment, just finished, but collectively I’m pretty proud of what we’ve been able to do in a short amount of time…

“Twelve months ago, we really didn’t have a hell of a lot of systems in place that were aligned, and we’ve been able to pull that together in a relatively short period and project a positive outcome at the end of the series.”

He added: “You always want your teams to go deep in the finals, and we catered for it. I thought the plan, regardless of whether we go deep into the finals or not, the Wallabies team and the coaching team worked collectively well together.”

But To’omua, who played at two World Cups and under three different Wallabies coaches, said he wanted some more accountability for the underdone nature of the side and believed the governing body couldn’t rely on Australia’s Super sides going deep into the competition given their results over the past decade.

“That’s passing the blame, isn’t it? We were underdone,” To’omua said on The Roar Rugby podcast.

“Don’t gaslight us. No Aussie team has gone past the semi-finals in years.

“I feel like Phil Waugh and Peter Horne have often played the odds and been quite sensible, [but] I think it’s fair to say maybe we got this one wrong.”

The Wallabies physically got the better of the Lions the later the series went on. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

The former playmaker added that he was surprised at some of the language used ahead of the Tests and believed the Wallabies didn’t have their eyes firmly fixated on the current series.

“I remember when the Lions were here in Canberra, I went to a function and a couple of the guys in the group had like four days off and they were talking about ‘we’ve still got a long season ahead to prepare for and we’ve got to be mindful of that’. And part of me was like, ‘you’re not wrong but you’re not getting the context of how big this is for us’,” To’omua said.

“So, I’m hearing that they’ve had four days off, and I’m hearing guys were ready for the first Test, but they didn’t pick them. Maybe we were a bit sensible and conservative and not realising the gravity that this game and the series meant for Australian rugby.”

To’omua said the Wallabies’ fighting spirit and third Test win showed that Schmidt had developed a “good culture” in the side, but believed the series defeat was an unfortunate blow.

“I would love with the benefit of hindsight, what would Joe do round one again?” To’omua said. “Would we have another lead-in game and get the guys ready for the Test, because I’ll tell you what, Tests two and three, we were raring to go. Is it nerves round one? Is it being underprepared? Is it being a bit conservative with our selections? I think they’re valid questions.”