Error-prone Lions stutter past plucky Waratahs in Sydney
Centre Huw Jones crossed twice in the first half and Alex Mitchell added another try early in the second but the Lions were held scoreless for the final 26 minutes of a contest coach Andy Farrell will quickly want to forget.
"It was a bit scrappy but we got there in the end, plenty still to work on," said Mitchell.
"A few things clicked but a few things were off."
The Waratahs, roared on by the majority of a crowd of 40,568, scored tries through Darby Lancaster and Ethan Dobbins and trailed by only four points early in the second half.
The Super Rugby side showed the Wallabies the way for the three-test series in late July and August with an uncompromising physicality all over the park that knocked the Lions off their stride.
"Super proud, super proud," said Waratahs skipper Hugh Sinclair.
"We showed up, it was scrappy but the Lions will not have been pleased with that."
The Lions were looking for another step up after a 52-12 win over Queensland Reds on Wednesday and opening their account with a 54-7 victory over Western Force.
It looked on the cards when they won a penalty off the first scrum and Jones cut through the defence for the first score under the posts in the 12th minute.
The Waratahs were in no mood to lie down, however, and they laid siege to the Lions line approaching the half-hour mark with Charlie Gamble fighting his way over to touch down only to have the score called back for obstruction.
The Lions went back up the other end for Jones to score his second try by barging through tacklers from close range in the 33rd minute, but the Waratahs responded almost immediately.
Flanker Rob Leota charged down the blindside and exchanged passes with Lancaster, who raced towards the line and took a tackle before getting back up to slap the ball down for a try.
Fin Smith's two successful conversions meant the Lions were 14-5 up at the break but the Waratahs cut the deficit further inside two minutes of the restart when hooker Ethan Dobbins scored the home side's second try from a rolling maul.
Farrell went to his bench after 10 minutes of the second half and the Lions soon scored their third try courtesy of a neat dummy off the back of a maul from Mitchell.
Replacement prop Ellis Genge got over the line five minutes later after a rampaging run but he bounced the ball on the ground before grounding it.
The errors continued and killed any fluency in the Lions attack, while Gamble and Leota were outstanding in leading the Waratahs pack in the scrap for every bit of possession.
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