Last 'Amigo' O'Connor gets unlikely redemption chance against Lions

MELBOURNE :Fourteen years after being a no-show for a World Cup team photo-shoot, James O'Connor was never going to miss one on Friday for the Wallabies' squad to face the British & Irish Lions.

Wedged between loose forward Rob Valetini and scrumhalf Jake Gordon, the much-travelled 35-year-old beamed from the front row of the team photo at Lang Park, back in a gold jersey again.

It has been three years since O'Connor played the last of his 64 tests, having been overlooked by Eddie Jones for the 2023 World Cup and by current Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt through his first season.

But with injury befalling the unfortunate Noah Lolesio, circumstances have gifted O'Connor an improbable shot at redemption 12 years on from his ill-fated series against Warren Gatland's Lions.

"Noah's injury opened up a doorway for me. And even then, again, I still didn't think I'd made it," he told reporters.

"So, to be here right now and to be given the opportunity to be with this group of men, I'm bloody excited."

Back in the 2013 Lions series, O'Connor was both the pin-up and the bad boy of Australian rugby, boasting a fantastic highlights reel and a record of off-field indiscretions.

One of the so-called "Three Amigos" with Kurtley Beale and Quade Cooper, O'Connor's transgressions included a food fight, a late-night scuffle with teammates in Paris, and sleeping through the Wallabies team photo for the 2011 World Cup.

He was nonetheless the surprise pick for starting flyhalf to face the Lions, beating out Cooper, Berrick Barnes and Christian Leali'ifano.

He took plenty of flak for the Wallabies' 2-1 defeat and caused a media storm midway through the series by being photographed with Beale at a fast food outlet near 4 a.m.

That image came to symbolise a