'Lions is best thing I've ever done,' says Ben Earl as Test wannabes search for elusive spark

Players are fired up as Wallabies loom but there are kinks to be ironed out in final warm-up against invitational XV

This time next week things will finally be getting real. The streets of Brisbane will be awash with red jerseys and, as Andy Farrell has been stressing from day one, the intensity of this Lions tour will soar to a whole new level. At which point it will all boil down to one essential question: are the Lions ready for what is coming over the horizon?

As the players stretched and flexed in front of Adelaide Oval's famous old scoreboard for their last fixture before the first Test, the answer is that no one can yet be entirely certain. The squad have spent the past fortnight frantically crisscrossing this great southern land like time-poor captains of industry and, deliberately or not, have revealed the best of themselves only fleetingly.