The British and Irish Lions were given comfortably their toughest test of their summer tour of Australia so far by the spirited New South Wales Waratahs in Sydney.
Andy Farrell’s side were handed a stern challenge by more Super Rugby Pacific opposition at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night, delivering a somewhat scrappy and disjoined performance in which they spurned a number of scoring opportunities and committed far too many handling errors in a hard-fought 21-10 victory.
A first-half brace of tries from Huw Jones and a later score from Alex Mitchell ultimately got the job done for the Lions as Darby Lancaster and Ethan Dobbins replied for the Waratahs either side of the break, but it was a far cry from the eight-try performances against both the Western Force and Queensland Reds to open the tour, two games in which they scored more than 50 points after losing their farewell match against Argentina in Dublin.
However, there were positives to take for the tourists, with the scrum dominant and lineout also improved. Jones and Sione Tuipulotu made a strong case to potentially become the Lions’ starting Test centre pairing against the Wallabies, while Scotland team-mate Scott Cummings also impressed, along with man-of-the-match Mitchell.
The Lions had to rejig their starting lineup ahead of kick-off for the second match in succession, Henry Pollock ruled out late as a precaution with a tight calf as captain Tadhg Beirne moved to blindside flanker and Cummings came in at lock, with Duhan van der Merwe promoted to a replacement role as Farrell reverted to a 5-3 bench split.
Farrell allayed any fears over Pollock before the game, insisting that it was only a slight issue with which he did not want to take any unnecessary risks.
There were Lions debuts from the outset for Blair Kinghorn and Hugo Keenan, the former lining up out wide after joining up with the squad following the Top 14 final and the latter having now recovered from the illness that saw him ruled out on the morning of the Reds game, which followed his recovery from a calf complaint.
Ben White also made his first appearance in Lions red off the bench after leaving Scotland camp in New Zealand to replace the injured Tomos Williams, though there was only a watching brief for Owen Farrell, who arrived in Sydney on Friday after being drafted in following Elliot Daly’s tour-ending arm fracture.
The Waratahs were missing star man Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii ahead of Australia’s only warm-up fixture against Fiji in Newcastle on Sunday, as well as fellow Wallabies Max Jorgensen, Langi Gleeson, Angus Bell and David Porecki, plus the injured Jake Gordon. However, the likes of Taniela Tupou and Andrew Kellaway were released for the game by Joe Schmidt and started.
There were more handling errors early from the Lions, but the scrum was on top quickly and it took 12 minutes for the first try to arrive, Jones - the only player to retain his starting berth from the 52-12 win over the Reds in Brisbane - going over after fine interplay with Tuipulotu after a lineout.
The scrappy precedent of the game was set and the Waratahs thought they had hit back after half an hour, impressive openside flanker Charlie Gamble touching down after the rolling maul. However, the try was chalked off for obstruction at the lineout from former Bath lock Fergus Lee-Warner.
The Lions made the most of that reprieve, Jones displaying wonderful footwork to sidestep one defender and then charge through three more to double his tally and show he is now fully recovered from the Achilles injury that saw him miss the end of the season for Glasgow.
The Waratahs did get a deserved first-half score though, Australia wing Darby Lancaster sprinting to finish in the left corner after fine work from props Tupou and Tom Lambert. The try stood after a TMO check on a clearout on Mack Hansen by Lee-Warner at the breakdown.
The Waratahs, led by former Leicester coach Dan McKellar and captained by the retiring Hugh Sinclair in Gordon’s absence, then made a dream start to the second half, hooker Ethan Dobbins scoring after the rolling maul before the subsequent conversion hit the post.
The Lions fired back with some scintillating attacking rugby, but flanker Josh van der Flier spilled the ball as he tried to score in the corner.
Farrell sent for the bench cavalry and a fearsome replacement front row trio of Ellis Genge, Dan Sheehan and Tadhg Furlong maintained that scrum dominance, Mitchell scoring an important third try when he picked the ball up from the back of a maul and sold a couple of trademark dummies before going over himself, Fin Smith nailing his third conversion of the night.
The Lions started to gain in confidence as Genge looked to have powered over for their fourth try, but he couldn’t ground the ball properly and it did not stand.
The handling errors continued to pile up as the Waratahs carried on making the Lions work hard late on, another try from Genge ruled out for obstruction at the maul by Ben Earl.
Next up for the Lions is a meeting with Australia’s best-performing Super Rugby Pacific side, the ACT Brumbies, at Canberra’s GIO Stadium on Wednesday night.
All eyes will first be on the Wallabies in their own Test warm-up against Fiji on Sunday.
