I may have given Sexton a tough time of it over his defence, but the out-half actually had a terrific game albeit not playing to the style we are accustomed to at Leinster. He kicked quite a bit as did the Lions in general but what was interesting was how they kicked. I can only recall one clear effort to kick for territory which was by Jonathan Davies. As Murray Kinsella pointed out, Australia's first lineout came after 37 minutes which emphasises that Lions' kicking strategy was to keep the ball in play as much as possible.
Sexton’s varied his kicking game with a mixture of Garryowens and chips over the top and this tactic yielded significant results. While Phillips’ kicking was pedestrian with not enough height and too much distance for the chasers, Sexton was superb in this part of the game. The images above shows him put a deft chip over the Australian defence and (below) gather his own kick seconds later. It was an intelligent part of the game used by the Lions. A few phases later the Lions would score what turned out to be the winning penalty.
The Lions’ set piece was quite solid throughout the game. They won all twelve of their lineouts but I would have a slight problem with certain things in that department. A large amount of their takes were either thrown to the first or second jumper before often going to a maul. I think it is somewhat understandable given the Lions have had some lineout issues in the tour matches that they wanted to ensure they won clean ball first and foremost. Yet they didn’t give a struggling backline much of a platform to attack off of it which is certainly something which I believe could have helped the team.
There were one or two dodgy situations where the timing looked a bit off between the lift and the jump as the image above shows. The lift is on a downward trajectory as Heaslip is receiving the ball. People will tend to blame the hooker in this situation but having played there it is far too simple to say that. Timing is built up with experience in games and that could be a factor for the Lions with so little time to prepare for the first test.
The scrum was interesting as the dominance of that area had switched sides by the end of the contest. Up until the 55th minute this was an area where the Lions were dominant for the majority of scrums and comfortable at worst. The changes in the front row resulting in Mako Vunipola and Dan Cole coming on seemed to shift the balance of power. From then on the Lions’ scrum seemed to creak that little bit more. The first scrum was an ominous sign of what was to come as Vunipola(circled) pops up but the Lions manage to get the ball away.
