Betoota bait: It’s a time-honoured tradition to bait the English into funny responses, particularly so when the British and Irish Lions rugby union team tours Australia. The duodecennial rugby tour, which compiles the best rugby players from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales (mostly Ireland), concludes with three highly anticipated Tests against the Wallabies, which most morose and downtrodden observers of the national rugby side acknowledge will probably result in a pummelling for the hosts.
Satire outlets and fans, however, never give up hope — and with the Wallabies surviving a late push from a plucky Fiji side last week, hope is in the air. Seizing on it, The Betoota Advocate ran the headline “British and Irish Lions at risk of being swept 3-0 after Wallabies clinically demolish Fiji”.
The headline was slammed by The Sunday Times’ star rugby correspondent Stephen Jones as “total and utter drivel”, dutifully missing the joke completely..."