THE BRITISH AND Irish Lions paid the price for excessive caution and a lack of forward power in a 16-15 second Test defeat by a “canny” Australia side, according to press reports on Sunday.
Australia’s victory in Melbourne on Saturday saw them level the three-match contest at 1-1 and left the Lions’ hopes of a much-longed for first series victory since 1997 dependent on the result of next week’s final Test in Sydney.
“Frankly, they (the Lions) sat back when they should have gone out and blasted it,” wrote Stephen Jones, the long-serving rugby correspondent of the Sunday Times.
As for the pack selected by Lions coach Warren Gatland, Jones added: “I was amazed how light and fluffy and vulnerable it was, even up against an Australian pack that, frankly, would not even frighten your grandmother at midnight in a dark alley”.
Jones highlighted how prop Mako Vunipola, for all his good play in the loose, had endured a torrid match in the scrum, writing:
“Sadly, the metaphorical cemeteries of rugby are full of props who were rated for other things bar scrummaging, and who were badly exposed for their lack of scrummaging power,” he wrote.
Jones’s Sunday Times colleague Stuart Barnes, the former England and Lions fly-half, added the Lions had “stopped playing in the last 20 minutes”.
Current Lions No 10 Jonathan Sexton said there were times during the second Test when “it felt like were just wishing for the game to finish rather than going after it”.Australia scored the only try of the match when Adam Ashley-Coper crossed four minutes from time and the Sunday Express’s Steve Bale wrote: “The Lions created so little when stretched to bursting point at Docklands Stadium that they can hardly complain this series will now go to a decider.”
Bale added that the tension surrounding both sides had contributed to an “error-strewn affair — the Lions’ very future after their long failure to win a series anywhere and the fate of Wallaby coach Robbie Deans being two key issues riding on this series”.
There was widespread sympathy for Leigh Halfpenny after the normally reliable goalkicker had a penalty to win the match, and with it seal the Lions’ first series success since their 1997 triumph in South Africa.
His kick fell short, an effort from more than 50 metres, the edge of his range, virtually the last kick of the game.
By contrast Australia’s Christian Leal’ifano, whose Test debut last week lasted less than a minute after he was knocked out, was on target with all four of his place-kicks in Melbourne.
His injury last week sparked a goalkicking crisis which contributed to Australia’s 23-21 defeat in the first test.“Never mind Leigh Halfpenny’s missed kick, which hurt so much that it left him doubled up in pain,” wrote the Observer’s Andy Bull.
“The Lions’ supposed strengths, their set pieces, have been exposed, and exploited, by this canny Australia side.”
Meanwhile, in Australia, the Melbourne Herald and Sun has predicted a series victory for the hosts. Sam Clench wrote:
“‘The Australians have a lot more improvement in them than the Lions,’ [Greg] Martin says.
“He’s right. For 70 minutes last night, the Wallabies failed at the basics of Test rugby. Their kick chase was slow, they didn’t go forward before sending the ball wide, their intensity at the breakdown was poor and too many players forgot that before you can do anything with the ball, you have to catch it.”
In addition, in the Sydney Morning Herald, Matthew Burke wrote that the tour in general had been a success.
“The significance of the tour can be quantified by the number of people who have come through the gates. More than 10,000 Lions fans are travelling with the official supporters group. There have been more than 10,000 ticket-inclusive travel packages sold through the Lions travel program. It is said that more than 30,000 Lions fans overall are following the tour and the majority will stay for the final Test in Sydney.
“Those are big numbers in anyone’s book. The split looks a little like this: English (48 per cent), Welsh (32 per cent), Irish (12 per cent) and Scottish (8 per cent) and I can tell you there has not been a warm beer sold on tour so far.”
SMH.com was somewhat less optimistic in its report however, claiming that both teams were below their best yesterday.“Neither side would be particularly happy with performances. Australia was smashed at the breakdown, James O’Connor again failed to convince that he has the goods at five-eighth and his partner in crime on and off the field, Kurtley Beale, had his ups and downs. A simple dropped ball late in the second half prompted the wise-crack from the television commentators that there would be a lot of hamburger jokes going around the stadium at that moment.
Finally, writing for Wales Online, Lions legend Barry John was similarly critical of their display.
“Gatland’s game plan has always been of a limited variety. People who follow the New Zealander will say this is his style of rugby and he has been successful with it in the past. ‘Warrenball’ is how it’s been described as in Australia.
“But this performance was not good enough and Gatland will have to think about spreading the ball wider next week.”
Additional reporting by AFP
