Tourism Australia calls on former Lions coach for inspiration

Australian Rugby fans are gearing up for the upcoming British and Irish Lions tour in June and July this year, which means the red army is also getting ready. Tourism Australia is taking advantage by recruiting ex-Lions coach Jim Telfer to recreate his iconic Everest speech in this ad.

Telfer’s 1997 speech to Lion’s players before playing South Africa is a thing of legend within the Rugby community. With a calm, quiet voice ringing with passion and curses, Telfer inspired his Lion’s pack to find the resolve by explaining to them that they were facing their ‘Everest’.

For the new campaign, Tourism Australia recreated the speech, with a few subtle tweaks, getting Telfer to retell his story not to Lion’s players, but to Lion’s supporters needing to convince their wives that a trip to Australia is necessary to experience the tour this year.

It’s a fantastic parody that does a great job of getting Lion’s fans excited by the upcoming tour. Although really, given Wallaby performance in recent seasons, do we really need to persuade the sea of red to come and sing their tunes during the games?

You can watch Telfer’s original Everest speech below, although be warned that it contains quite a few F-bombs.