Western Force 7 British & Irish Lions 54: Tourists run riot in Perth but Tomos Williams hands worrying injury scare
Henry Pollock announced himself to the Aussie public as the Lions romped to an eight-try win to get the tour up and running.
But there was an injury scare when scrum-half Tomos Williams limped off with hamstring trouble after pulling up after scoring his second try after 47 minutes.
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The British and Irish Lions roared to a 54-7 thrashing of Western Force
Credit: Getty
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But Tomos Williams handed the Lions a major injury scare
Credit: Getty
And that could spell bad news for the Lions with Jamison Gibson-Park currently sidelined and Alex Mitchell the only other nine here.
Northampton back row Pollock made a try, got involved in a scrap with Western Force lock Darcy Swain, got yellow carded and threw a horror pass to James Lowe behind his own line.
And that was just in the first half.
If the Australians did not know who Pollock is they do now and it looks like he is going to be making plenty of noise down under for the next few weeks.
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The 20-year-old was one of the Lions to stand up - despite his card – and was always involved in the thick of the action and must have a fighting chance of making the Test 23.
It took just 16 minutes for Pollock to let the Australians know he had arrived when he set up Tomos Williams' score and he never went away.
Farrell was fuming after last Friday's 28-24 defeat to Argentina in Dublin which got the tour off on the wrong foot and nothing but a thumping win would do here.
The boss had seven familiar Irish faces in his starting line-up including captain for the day and hooker Dan Sheehan as the countdown to the first Test in Brisbane in three weeks started properly.
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Western Force finished ninth of 11 in Super Rugby this season and were missing some players who had been kept in Wallaby camp by Aussie head coach Joe Schmidt.
But if the travelling fans were expecting an easy ride they had an early alarm call after skipper Dan Sheehan had finished off from Finn Russell's cross kick and a one-two with James Lowe after 95 seconds.
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Force have not played for a month but it didn't show as they put the tourists under the pump and former Exeter scrum-half Nic White dived it over to level it on four minutes.
But then came Pollock with a storming run after playing a one-two with Josh van der Flier.
Pollock was caught short of the line but popped the ball up for Williams to score.
Then Elliot Daly scored after Finn Russell's crafty quick tap and run and Pollock and Swain had some afters following the Englishman's celebration.
Then Pollock was carded for playing the ball on the floor but he took one for the team there as the Lions were on a warning.
It was over as a game when Williams went over for his second and with Garry Ringrose's score, it was 33-7 before Joe McCarthy helped the tourists get to 40 after Pollock's kick had pinned Force back.
Daly added a second as tourists cruised past 40 and Force were done with Mitchell bringing up the 50.
Scorers
:
Western Force
: Try: White; Con: Donaldson
British & Irish Lions
: Tries: Sheehan, Williams (2), Daly (2), Ringrose, McCarthy, Mitchell; Cons: Russell (5), Smith (2)
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