Lions winger Ieuan Evans rises with the ball after scoring the decisive try of the third Test of the 1989 Tour as a distraught Greg Martin and David Campese look on. The front cover of the 'Official Tour Book' of the 1989 British Lions tour of Australia. THE Lions were humbled by Australia in the opening Test of the 1989 Tour. What happened next has become one of the most famous tales in Lions - and Wallabies - folklore. THE British and Irish Lions arrived in Australia for the first time in 18 years and didn't take long to make their presence felt. In six victorious tour games leading up to the first Test against Australia in Sydney, a side backboned by imposing Scots and Englishmen was never averse to mixing the rough with the smooth. So much so that the build-up to the first Test was dominated by the Lions" allegedly over-physical play, which contrasted with the Wallabies" assumed lack of aggression. Australia's coach Bob Dwyer was unsurprisingly peeved at such assumptions and wasn't averse to dropping a hint to the refs in advance of the game. "In their matches leading to the Test, the Lions have used their boots for things other than kicking the football," he grumbled. The prevailing wisdom was the allegedly daintier home side lacked an enforcer up front, and would need to work the ball out to the mercurial David Campese on the wing so he could dance around the lumbering visitors. Like so much speculation though, it wasn't quite as simple as that. Famous Wallabies recall their early triumph at the "space-age" Sydney Football Stadium. To the surprise of most, not least the Lions and their Scottish coach Ian McGeechan, it was the Wallabies who imposed themselves on the first Test physically. According to the Melbourne Sun's match report by Phil Gardner, Scott Gourley set the tone, with a crunching tackle on arguably the Lions" best, most creative player: Scottish full-back Gavin Hastings. "The young NSW breakaway was ranging across the Sydney Football Stadum early on when ... Hastings received the ball," Gardner wrote. Gourley lined up the burly Hastings and then hit him with a crunching tackle which left the Lion bruised and winded. The message was clear - you can run, but you can't hide. "It was the type of ferocious tackling that was the cornerstone of the Wallabies" 30-12 victory. A crash test Lion is felled by a tough Aussie tackle. Image: David McArthur / Dave Larkin Source: News Limited Written off as too slow, small and meek, the Wallabies gave the British tourists a sound whipping. In doing so, the Australians turned in one of their best performances of the past five years. Gourley led by example in an immovable defence, while fly-half Michael Lynagh put in an immense performance as he orchestrated Australia's biggest ever win over the Lions, kicking 14 points himself. As for Campese, according to Gardner he "turned in an afternoon of goose-stepping runs mixed with some eccentric passing." As it turned out, we hadn't seen nothing yet. The Battle of Ballymore. After being chastened in Sydney, the Lions skulked away to lick their wounds, hoping that the return of some of their injured stars - particularly powerhouse English blindside flanker Mike Teague - could help restore some pride. The second Test took place at Ballymore Stadium in Brisbane, a venue soon to become synonymous with the darker side of rugby union after what Teague himself described as "the most violent game of rugby that has ever been played." The Lions trailed by three points with just minutes to go, but two devastating tries secured one of the greatest Test comebacks of all time. "The Lions ... must have despaired of ever breaching the Australian defence as they trailed 12-9 at the 75-minute mark, still without a try to their credit in the series," wrote Wayne Smith in The Sunday Mail. But in the space of the final five breathtaking minutes, the Lions pulled their tour out of the fire with two stunning tries - the first by fullback Gavin Hastings, the second by centre Jeremy Guscott. "There was more than a degree of doubt about the legality of Hastings" try, as the huge final pass from his brother Scott appeared forward, but the match-clincher three minutes later by Guscott could be traced back directly to Australian left winger David Campese, who dropped two high balls in the space of a minute." Smith wrote that the Wallabies - who had endured some famously calamitous results at the same venue in the past - had "never self-destructed so late in proceedings and never so spectacularly." But it was the heavy-handed tactics of the visitors that dominated post-match coverage. "Hopefully, the Lions will have learned from the manner of their unprecedented victory," Smith wrote. For the first 40 minutes of the match they played like boorish bully boys, with boots and fists flying freely from the British camp. The wounded Lions become vicious as they overwhelm the home side with a brutally physical display Referring to a famous inquiry into Queensland police corruption of the time, Smith wrote: "With three policemen in the Lions pack, it seemed the tourists themselves were in need of a Fitzgerald Inquiry, so blatant was the general disregard for law and order." AAP's match report said the Lions had "hacked and clawed their way back from the edge of oblivion with a 19-12 victory, but that they "stand condemned for some brutally crude attempts at intimidation." Clem Thomas, The Observer's rugby correspondent, wrote that in a series "as physically demanding as any I have witnessed" the second Test "in particular provided scenes of violence of which neither side could feel proud." Lions captain Finlay Calder, speaking in 2009, simply described the encounter - during which somehow no player was deemed worthy of dismissal - as "juicy, a bit juicy." Australian captain Nick Farr-Jones, speaking after a match in which he had brawled on the ground with his opposing scrum-half Robert Jones in footage that immediately became infamous, predicted that the third Test could develop into "open warfare." "As far as I am concerned the Lions have set the rules and set the standards, and, if the officials are going to do nothing about it, then we are going to have to do it ourselves," Farr-Jones said. We won't sit back and cop it again. Outraged Australian officials created a video highlights reel of the game's darker moments and dispatched it north, urging the British and Irish unions to take "any action they may deem appropriate." Unsurprisingly, none was taken. Amid all the outrage and opprobrium it was Australia's assistant coach Bob Templeman who brokered a peace deal with McGeechan in the game's aftermath, according to Thomas. "They got together and decided it was impossible to wage war and play good rugby," wrote Thomas, "and were adamant that there would be no trouble in the final Test." For his part, Teague remains unrepentant. Speaking to The Guardian in 2009 he looked back with pride and near-fondness at his team's display on a day that has lived in rugby infamy. The difference now is that those guys can't do what we did. We can't be seen to condone what went on, but needs must... There were some hard players on that tour; hard men and they all came together and sorted the job out. David Campese gets it all wrong. After some erratic performances in the previous Tests, the brilliant enigma that was Wallaby winger David Campese undoubtedly saved his worst for last. A tense affair was deadlocked at 9-9 at half-time, with the game seemingly destined to pivot on one single moment of brilliance. Or madness. Shortly after Australia had edged ahead in the second half, Lion Rob Andrew attempted a drop goal but sliced it. Campese caught the ball behind his line and decided to start a quick counter-attack. Unfortunately for Australia, this bright idea wasn't sufficiently telegraphed to fullback Greg Martin. Campese's attempted pass went astray, and Martin's flailing arm wasn't enough to stop quick-thinking Welsh winger Ieuan Evans from gleefully barging through and grounding the loose ball for a try. The score emboldened the Lions, who went on to stretch their lead to seven. A gallant Wallaby fightback came to nought as the Lions defence held firm for a one-point victory, leaving Campese to cop the blame for the series loss. Wayne Smith, writing in The Sunday Mail, described the error as a moment of "rank stupidity." How much longer can the Wallabies afford to carry a player who appears to feel the mundane, humdrum basics of rugby are beneath his extraordinary talents and who places applause ahead of responsibility to his teammates? Smith wrote. A spectacular brain fade by one of the greatest Wallabies of all time gifts the series to the Lions. Andrew Slack, in the same paper, wrote that Campese should not even be considered for a place in the tour-closing Anzac XV side. "Campese, who comes and goes as he chooses, makes too many "one-off" bad mistakes when wearing the green and gold," Slack wrote. His teammates deserve to be, and undoubtedly will be, disgusted with him. However, Campese's teammates and coach rallied around him, reacting angrily to any suggestion he would be dropped from the side for his error. As for the man himself, he headed off to the movies the next day to try to forget his blunder. "I feel lousy,"" he said. "I don't want to talk about it."" What film Campo went to see is not on record, although films released in that year did include Crimes and Misdemeanours, The Abyss, and Do The Right Thing.