The Lions blew it. Despite Gatland’s poor selection, Vunipola’s woeful scrummaging, the malfunctioning lineout and a total lack of ambition, the Lions should have won that match. The Wallabies knocked on, turned over, and at the crucial moment, kicked straight into touch from deep in their own 22, yet still the tourists contrived to lose the match. This will hurt badly and the WAGs will have a hell of a job to pick them up ahead of the decider in the ANZ Stadium in Sydney next Saturday.
Hopefully there will be less chat about the ref this week. Far from perfect, I thought Joubert had one of his better games. The breakdown was a proper contest and the Lions did well there with Warburton outstanding (at last). It seems to me that he is at his best when operating alongside Lydiate, which perhaps explains why he is so useless for the Cardiff Blues. Whatever the reason, he had his best match of the tour and finally justified his selection. His injury will be a worry for the Lions although, given the back-up, he is far from irreplaceable.
The South African ref was less assured at the scrum where he correctly identified Vunipola’s hinging but seemed more tolerant of the Tongan’s boring. It seems that everyone knows that Vunipola is a dodgy scrummager, and surely Gatland and Rowntree must know it too. It is clear from his set up that he is going to struggle, as the picture below highlights.
With his back arched and his feet below his hips, he is in an incredibly weak position. This is what led to the first penalty, which Leali’ifano converted. Indeed, Vunipola was a veritable penalty machine in the first quarter and it is astonishing that he stayed on the pitch, and must have been a monumental kick in the teeth for Ryan Grant . That he did, may be down to his getting away with some extraordinary boring. On one occasion, the Aussies were pinged for standing up. As the scrum broke up, it was clear that Vunipola’s head was in Moore’s chest. Well done him for getting away with it. Next week, Poite is unlikely to pick up on the technicalities, but if he decides the Aussie scrum has the upper hand, he will ping Vunipola off the park.
Personally, I hope that the citing commissioner spotted Mako’s cheeky elbow to AAC’s chin and hands out a suspension. It seems this is the only way Grant is going to get on the pitch.
Tom Youngs had a fine game in defence displaying excellent line speed and sound tackling technique. However, he must accept some of the blame for the struggling scrum and the dodgy lineouts. Much of this was due to his dodgy throwing. Finally invited to find some jumpers more than 7m away from him, we found out that he struggles with throwing to the tail too. But overall, the lineout has been monstered by the Aussies two weeks in a row. They seem to get their jumpers higher and present a much cleaner target for Stephen Moore.
At the final lineout, Parling’s call to himself in the middle was overly ambitious. As ever, he was well marked by the outstanding Ben Mowen. Hibbard overthrew and the Leicester beanpole could do no more than deflect the ball to Liam Gill who caught the it as if he were Eoin Morgan at gully. Instead of securing the ball at the front of the lineout, using a couple of phases to work the ball into the centre of the park for J10 to have a go at the drop, they’d blown it.
Yet the outstanding Sean O’Brien would contrive to give them yet another chance by securing a turnover just as the clock turned red. The Aussies are astounded that he doesn’t start and, frankly, so am I. After his 20-minute cameo, surely Gatty now gets it too. He has tried to beat Australia by tackling them to death on numerous occasions, and it doesn’t work. Anyone pointing to last week’s victory should realise that game was won when Leali’ifano got himself knocked out. Gatland needs to get some ball-carriers into the side, and even if Dr Bob’s hamstring is good to go, the Tullow Tank must start.
One has to question whether the decision to kick at goal was correct. Easy to say in hindsight I know, but surely the whole team should know their kicker’s range. This was clearly outside Halfpenny’s, demonstrated by his hitting the crossbar from slightly nearer in the first 5 minutes of the game. The Lions should have tapped and gone again, just as a POC-led Munster, or Johnson’s England would have done. That they didn’t, suggests a lack of trust in their rucking.
On the plus-side most of the Irish contingent went well. Tommy Bowe had a decent outing and both he and George North must be given more ball next week if the Lions are to prevail. Conor Murray also had a fine test debut, securing one excellent turnover almost as soon as he came on, and kicking much better than Ben Youngs. It will be interesting to see whether Phillips comes back next week. There are rumours of his being disciplined after breaking a curfew, and some suggesting that he really was injured. If he does come back, he’d need to be way better than last week, otherwise the Lions will get caned. Jonny Sexton also played well, despite the very ordinary fare he was served up, and the limited gameplan. He was very lively with ball in hand, and his Garryowen’s had plenty of hang time and were inch perfect throughout. Heaslip was good again, and I think that calls to replace him with Faletau are harsh, although there is very little to choose between them.
BOD didn’t have one of his better games. He did put in a monster hit on AAC early on, but he barely touched the ball. When he did it wasn’t terribly auspicious, nearly putting Folau away with one wayward pass, and getting away with a hugely risky pass between his legs immediately before North gave Folau his fireman’s carry.
So, if the Lions are to win next week, I reckon they will need more beef, more go forward, and a much more ambitious game plan. Consequently, I would pick the following team:
0.5p
Bowe
O’Driscoll
Roberts/Tuilagi/Davies (in that order, depending on fitness)
North
Sexton
Murray
Grant
Hibbard (I’d pick Best but it’s too unlikely)
Adam Jones
Alun-Wyn Jones
Gray
O’Brien
Warburton (Tipuric if the hammy isn’t recovered)
Heaslip
Bench:
T Youngs
Court (props are for propping)
Cole
Parling
Tipuric/Lydiate
B Youngs
Farrell
Kearney
Having been underwhelmed to date, I am really looking forward to the last test as finally I give a fig about the result. Paul O’Connell and Brian O’Driscoll deserve a series win and I really hope they get one. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t put any of my own money on that outcome.
