photo credit: [lionsrugby.com]
The match began on a particularly sour note, with Australia’s promising young inside centre, Christian Lealiifano, was stretchered off after sustaining a neck injury whilst tackling Lions’ centre Jonathan Davies. Both sides and the crowd applauded the young man off.
The home team were the first to be given the opportunity for a score, with Brian O’Driscoll getting pinged for being off his feet in the ruck. It was a contentious decision, with the clash of ‘Northern’ and ‘Southern’ hemisphere interpretations of the rules clashing, which could have been crucial in the outcome of the match. O’Driscoll’s tenacious play at the breakdown, is usually complimented in the Northern hemisphere games, but referee Pollock deemed it to infringe the rules. O’Connor stepped up to to convert, but the ball fell just short.
Only two minutes later, O’Driscoll was pinged for the same reason, with the Irishman proclaiming his innocence: “look at the replays”, he said incredulously. O’Connor is given a second bit of the proverbial cherry, but this time misses by inches, achieving the distance but not the direction.
The first scrum occurs in the eighth minute of the match, with the tourists slaughtering the Wallabies up front, forcing a penalty which puts the Lions on the attack. They put together some brilliant passing and rucking moves, however the Australian defense is strong and stems the tide.
Australia’s defense was mature and disciplined, which worked in their favour when a penalty was awarded in their favour. The quick-thinking Will Genia took charge, picking the ball up for a quick tap and go, exploiting the out-of-position Lions. He went on a marvellous snaking run down the right wing, drawing a trio of Lions player, before grubber kicking the ball through for Israel Folau who swept up with ease. O’Connor converted, third time lucky.
It took as long as 22 minutes for the Lions to get on the scoreboard, despite playing fairly well. Tom Youngs threw the ball into the line-out and the Lions cleaned out the Australian defense with ease. With the hosts on the back foot, they conceded a penalty at the set-piece, much to the delight of the Lions fans. Leigh Halfpenny puts three points on the board for the lions.
Four minutes later, the Lions go in for the kill with George North showing why he is arguably the best winger in the world at the moment. O’Connor kicks the ball down field, and granted it isn’t the best kick, but what North does afterwards is outrageous. He takes the high ball, and runs at the Australian defense, shirking off a tackle with ease, keeps his balance from a tap tackle and sidesteps Berrick Barnes with ease, before finishing in the left-hand corner. Halfpenny converts from an almost impossible angle, with the Lions taking the lead. Australia 7 – 10 Lions.
The Lions were building some real momentum and almost scored a second try instantaneously. They were camped on the Wallabies’ try line, with George North offering himself as the battering ram alternative out wide. Phillips elected to use North, who was static, yet still managed to muscle his way into the left hand corner and touch down, dragging two Australians with him. However, North’s elbow was in touch upon consulting the TMO, and Folau did an excellent job of holding the ball up. The referee, with consultation with the TMO, brought the game back for a Lions penalty, which Halfpenny converted to extent their lead to 13 points to 7.
In response to a fervent Lions attack, the Wallabies scored a great try of their own. The ball was given to that man Folau, with real hints of a forward pass, but a moment of magnificent footwork and magical trickery from the Australian number 14, again deceived a trio of Lions, bamboozling Sexton and creating the space for the winger to finish the try. The amount of space that Genia and Folau were finding in Lions ranks, not only finding, but creating, was marvellous. The referee consulted the TMO, who adjudged the ball to have not gone forward, correctly giving the attacker the benefit of the doubt. O’Connor missed the conversion however. The score now standing at 13 – 12 to the Lions.
Just before half-time, another serious injury occurred for the home team. Berrick Barnes and Israel Folau accidentally collided, with Barnes coming off far worse, being stretchered off with another neck injury for the hosts. Kurtley Beale came on as a replacement, who would prove to play a decisive part in which way the test would swing.
On the stroke of half-time, some cynical rucking from Australia earned the Lions a penalty. Who could blame them for designating the kick to Halfpenny, having only missed one kick all tour. This would be his second miss, however. The Lions went in at half-time with a minute lead of one point, the score: Australia 12 – 13 Lions.
The second half began negatively for the Wallabies, with replacement Pat McCabe, who came on for Lealiifano in the first minute, stretchered off with yet another neck injury. McCabe has had a history of neck issues in the past, but this was poor timing for it to re-occur. As a result, the Australians brought on a flanker, with current openside flanker Hooper, being forced into the centre position, with no suitable replacements on the bench.
Only two minutes later, the Lions exploited the weakness in the back-line. Jonathan Sexton stretchered the centre position, drawing Hooper before switching the ball out to Alex Cuthbert who poured through the yawning gap. It appeared that Brian O’Driscoll obstructed number 10 O’Connor in the build up, but the TMO adjudged that “there was no clear obstruction”, which Wallabies fans will be disappointed with. It was perhaps fair on the balance of play however, with the potential forward pass in the build up to the Australian try in the first half. Halfpenny resumed his kicking supremacy with a conversion to give the Lions a lead of 20 points to Australia’s 12.
From the kick-off, the Lions gave away a silly penalty with a ruck infringement. This gave O’Connor three easy points to kick for. 15-20. The Lions switched their props, with Vunipola and Cole coming on for Corbisiero and Jones, which was arguably a major turning point at scrum time. The replacements didn’t have their best game.
Indiscipline, combined with an ‘alternative’ reading of the breakdown by referee Pollock began to plague the tourists. Kurtley Beale assumed kicking duties, and reduced the Lions’ lead to two points, with a distance conversion of the penalty.
What followed, was a series of penalties for either side. Firstly, the Lions struck through Halfpenny, after Benn kicked the ball out the side of the ruck from an offside position, which was a silly infringement to give away given the nature of the match.
Kurtley Beale struck back, with a scintillating run through the midfield, burning off Sam Warburton and Brian O’Driscoll with a jink and a rapid change of pace. Halfpenny brought him down, but the Lions were on the back foot, and O’Connell was forced, cynically, to give away the penalty. Beale converted the penalty from the move which he started, to bring the game back to a two point margin. Australia 21 – 23 Lions.
With ten minutes to go, the Lions were awarded a scrum in front of the Wallabies’ posts. A perfect opportunity to grind out the win, and slot a drop goal. However, the scrum wheeled and the ball found Will Genia who cleared with a high ball, which found the last man the Lions wanted it to; Israel Folau.
The Lions were unexpectedly on the back foot, and Vunipola who has a had a great tour so far, was having a less bountiful time in the first test. He was pinged by Pollock for being off his feet at the ruck, and with five minutes to go, gave Beale an opportunity to put the hosts in front. However, Beale shanked the penalty wide, with Lions fans breathing collective sighs of relief.
If the Lions thought their squad had problems, Australia were having a horrendous time with injuries; Adam Ashley-Cooper had been nursing a serious hand injury for a fair portion of the second half, and with 4 minutes to go, could not continue. This meant that scrum-half Phipps had to come on. The Wallabies were now playing with a scrum-half and open-side flanker in the centre positions.
Despite their injury problems, in the eightieth minute, the scrum collapsed under Australian possession, and the hosts were awarded a penalty, with Pollock deeming the Lions to have brought it down. This gave substitute Kurtley Beale the opportunity to win the game for the Aussies, with the last kick of the match, 46 yards out and straight on at the posts. Beale took his time to step up, composing himself, and stepped up to take the final penalty. However, he slipped in the run up to the penalty, with the ball falling short of the posts and bouncing out the back of the pitch, giving the match to a very relieved team of Lions.
Australia: Berrick Barnes; Israel Folau, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Christian Leali’ifano, Digby Ioane; James O’Connor, Will Genia; Benn Robinson, Stephen Moore, Ben Alexander, James Horwill (capt), Kane Douglas, Ben Mowen, Michael Hooper, Wycliff Palu.
Replacements: Saia Fainga’a, James Slipper (for Robinson, 68), Sekope Kepu (for Alexander, 58), Rob Simmons (for Douglas, 68), Liam Gill (for McCabe, 47), Nick Phipps (for Ashley-Cooper, 77), Pat McCabe (for Leali’ifano, 2) Kurtley Beale (for Barnes, 38).
Lions: Leigh Halfpenny, Alex Cuthbert, Brian O’Driscoll, Jonathan Davies, George North, Jonathan Sexton, Mike Phillips; Alex Corbisiero, Tom Youngs, Adam Jones, Alun Wyn Jones, Paul O’Connell, Tom Croft, Sam Warburton (capt), Jamie Heaslip.
Replacements: Richard Hibbard (for T Youngs, 65), Mako Vunipola (for Corbisiero, 52), Dan Cole (for A Jones, 52), Geoff Parling (for AW Jones, 70), Dan Lydiate (for Croft, 73), Ben Youngs (for Phillips, 62), Owen Farrell, Sean Maitland.
Baseline Sport 