Lions in good place but wary of wounded Wallabies in second Test

Mint

5 days ago

Coach Andy Farrell has cautioned the British and Irish Lions to be wary of a wounded Wallabies side in the second Test, and demanded they improve their discipline.
The battle-hardened tourists won the first Test in Brisbane on Saturday 27-19, and on the face of it have little to fear from Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground next weekend.
But Farrell made clear there would be no complacency, after the Lions' intensity dropped over the closing 20 minutes at Suncorp Stadium.
"We are playing against a wounded animal, at a sold-out MCG, and we know what to expect," he told reporters, with the Wallabies needing to win to keep the three-Test series alive.
"There is plenty to work on, but we're in a good place going into game two."
On their last visit in 2013, the Lions also won the opener in Brisbane but Australia bounced back to clinch the second Test 16-15 at Melbourne.
While Saturday's scoreline shows an eight-point winning margin, the Lions essentially had the match wrapped up early in the second-half when a converted Dan Sheehan try moved them 24-5 clear.
But they then failed to deliver a killer blow and allowed the plucky hosts to score two more converted tries and claw back into the contest.
Warren Gatland, who coached the Lions on their 2013 tour, said he was surprised that Farrell made such early second-half substitutions which he felt interrupted their flow.
"I thought they might keep those players on a little bit longer just as they were tidying things up," he told Sky Sports. "They probably lost a little bit of cohesion and momentum in doing that."
Farrell acknowledged the team lost some edge as the second-half progressed.
"We started well, controlled the game, and the back row was immense. It was a talking point all week and they stood up," said Farrell.
"Our physicality was spot on in the first-half, but we lacked a bit of discipline in the second and that slowed things down."
Loose forwards Tadhg Beirne and Tom Curry were outstanding, in particular, but it was the half-back combination of Scotland's Finn Russell and Irishman Jamison Gibson-Park who pulled the strings.
When the pair was humming, the Lions were always a danger.
"The combination of Gibson-Park and Russell really controlled the game and didn't get bored of doing the right thing," said the coach.
The Lions have now won six-from-six on their Australian tour and next meet a First Nations and Pasifika XV at Melbourne's Docklands Stadium on Tuesday.
Farrell is set to field a B team while insisting second Test slots remain up for grabs. In reality, it will need something special to dislodge anyone from the MCG starting side.