Coaches divided on British and Irish Lions' fault line FOR Rod Macqueen, it's a question of whether the British and Irish Lions continue to back their attack; for John Connolly it all hinges on who cracks under pressure; as for Ewen McKenzie, it's the breakdown, stupid. Where Australia's senior rugby coaches are concerned, the only consensus ahead of the three-Test Lions series is that it will be close, with the margins for error perilously fine. As for what will be the fault line along which the series fractures, well, opinions vary. Macqueen, whose 2001 Wallabies are the only Australian side to have defeated the Lions in a Test series, believes the critical element could well be whether Warren Gatland's men can maintain their attacking systems in the face of ferocious Australian defence. "The interesting thing with the Lions is that they do have creative attack," Macqueen told The Australian yesterday. They have good ideas, they're running good lines but every now and then it's breaking down and whether they can get it together and keep it together (against the Wallabies) is going to be a bit of a test. And that may mean they are going to bring their game back for the Tests. Even the greatest players revert to what is familiar when subjected to intense pressure and that certainly is what the Wallabies are intending to apply through their defence. A scaled-down Lions attack, however, might not get the job done. But one of the lessons of the Reds-Lions match was how easily Queensland was able to cope with their opponents' attack when the Lions simply worked their way through the phases. Assuming the Wallabies' discipline holds and they do not concede penalties at the breakdown, they, too, would be confident of holding out the Lions' bread-and-butter attack long enough to force a turnover. However, the Lions' X-factor attack, built around such players as George North, Brian O'Driscoll, Leigh Halfpenny and Jamie Heaslip, could take the Wallabies painfully out of their comfort zone. Then, in Macqueen's mind, there is the question of desperation. "The Lions are going to be a very formidable side," he said. And they'll be absolutely desperate to win here. They've lost their past three series (to the Wallabies in 2001, to the All Blacks in 2005 and to the Springboks in 2009) and Gatland will leave absolutely no stone unturned in trying to win this one. Connolly, Robbie Deans's predecessor as Wallabies coach, expects that, with the set-piece battles unlikely to yield a clear winner, it will be the side making the fewer mistakes that wins. "One poor scrum, one poorly organised lineout, one bad kick, one piece of miscommunication and the cost can be very high," Connolly said. The widespread expectation before the tour was that the Lions' set pieces would give them a distinct edge but Connolly doesn't expect that to be the case. I'd expect parity at both scrum and lineout. McKenzie, too, believes the set pieces will end in stalemate. I don't think the scrum will be an issue, while the lineouts will be interesting. Australia has had the edge on the Welsh lineout so if the Lions go with the Welsh pair (Alun Wyn Jones and Ian Evans) James Horwill and Rob Simmons should handle that. It'll be the breakdown that decides it. It's not the flashy turnovers that McKenzie expects to be critical but rather which side is able to get its attack on the front foot by generating quick ball at the breakdown. That's an area that all Australian Super Rugby sides have excelled in this season. "The question is whether the Lions can slow Australia's ball down without getting penalised," McKenzie said.