Pride can offset the lack of time

As the Waratahs came back to within a score of the Lions amid the night's first chants of "New South Wales" and threatened to completely derail the tour altogether, the thought occurred that now - more than ever - cometh the hour cometh the man.

Four years ago, after the defeat to Northern Transvaal, John Bentley had almost single-handedly revitalised the tour with a virtuoso try in the Lions rejuvenatory win over Transvaal. An equally unlikely hero emerged in the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday. Thank you Duncan McRae.

A muscular yet relatively slight and inoffensive player, even some of the Lions' English players who knew McRae through his stint with Saracens last season agreed that there could have been few more unlikely heroes really, or in his case more of an anti-hero.

Indeed, as the big men crashed into each other violently, literally from the first kick-off, completing near self-fulfilling prophecies by the Australian media, the unlikeliest recipient of McRae's flurry of punches - estimated tally of 11 - would be Ronan O'Gara.

The blow-out - if not the main players in the blow-out - was inevitable though. Even before the Lions set foot on this fair country, the acrimonious 1989 tour had been stoked up in advance.

A couple of weeks ago an entire front page in a three-page preview of the Lions' tour was devoted to regurgitating the '89 "Battle of Balmier".

Nor when that had been exhausted had there been any let-up. Such was the daily demonising of the Lions in this past week or more by a succession of the three highest profile Australian coaches, Rod Macqueen, Bob Dwyer and Eddie Jones, that one could only presume it had been deliberately orchestrated. All, interestingly, had been made public by way of formal ARU press releases/statements.

Dwyer, coach of the superior Wallabies team which had been roughed up and distracted 12 years before to lose the series on this very same ground, denied that the current tourists were paying for the sins of Finlay Calder and Co. But undoubtedly that is the case.

The only hope can be now that old scores have been settled to a degree and that, as Macqueen said subsequent to Saturday night's brawl in Sydney, "sanity will prevail". Furthermore, the Waratahs, inspired by McRae, succeeded in only distracting themselves at a time when they were going well.

Donal Lenihan, calling the McRae incident "a disgrace", observed: "If the shoe was on the other foot we'd be reading about it for the next 12 years."

That said, the events of the past few weeks do have a flip side, and the antics of the various Aussie coaches, some of the Australian media and now McRae and the Waratahs, have served to unify these Lions and invest them with a bit more pride; succeeding in some respects where a technical, emotionally removed and disparate Lions coaching staff have failed .

Confirming that it was an altogether different dressing-room to last Tuesday's, Lenihan said: "Given the circumstances of the game, everyone is hugely thrilled with the result. This game has pulled us together even closer."

The only problem with all this, alas, is the actual rugby the Lions are playing. It isn't good enough to beat the Wallabies in the first test next Saturday.

For 40 minutes it was pretty good, with Jonny Wilkinson calling the shots from outhalf and the Lions extending the Waratahs to breaking point with some impressive continuity, keeping the ball through hands or cleaning out ruck ball quickly.

Neil Back, keeping Phil Waugh much quieter than the previous Tuesday and underlining why he's an absolute must for the test series, took three vital turnovers at the breakdown, once denying the Waratahs attacking momentum inside the Lions 22, and twice giving them the platform for Jason Robinson to score.

The latter's all-purposeful performance, strong in defence, good under the high ball, hitting rucks effectively and ability to dance through the eye of a needle, showed that, far from being a blow, Dan Luger's unfortunate departure may be a blessing in disguise.

Thrice involved in his opening try, O'Driscoll also showed his game-breaking abilities and made a mockery of some English and Australian media suggestions that the best number 13 in the world was a doubtful test starter, or could perhaps be accommodated on the wing.

Alas, another of the potential young match-winners, Iain Balshaw, counter-attacked ill-advisedly, though it would be almost depressing if this meant him being jettisoned or moved to the wing for the tests.

Admittedly, Daffyd James - despite dancing in from the centre late on - has added nothing going forward in three starts from right wing.

Up front, the scrum went better when allowed, showing that the Lions benefited from the management being forced into a media tit-for-tat with their Aussie counterparts. Danny Grewcock had another stormer while Scott Quinnell again carried the ball on well, but though better than in midweek, Lawerence Dallaglio was nothing like his awesome self and we now know why.

Undoubtedly, the team began to disintegrate when Wilkinson was switched to inside centre, uncharacteristically missing tackles himself while O'Gara occasionally slowed the ball down.

Worryingly too, for the third game running the Aussie coaches seemed to outsmart their Lions counterparts, if not from the start (as Australia A had done under Eddie Jones) then from the interval resumption (as the Queensland Reds had done under Ed McBain) with the Waratahs adjusting their attack and defence to cause the Lions far more problems.

With the ball they began straightening through the Lions midfield almost at will, either by dint of a double switch and a third runner from deep or the simple expedient of Manny Edmonds looping around Sam Harris before throwing out a blatantly forward pass for Francis Cullimore's try.

Ironically, when Matt Perry replaced O'Gara, in the process he, Balshaw, James and Wilkinson all reverted to their club positions, and Wilkinson steadied the ship with 10 points. Tellingly, with Wilkinson at outhalf, the score was 31-12.

Nonetheless, at the death Edmonds dummied through Dallaglio and Wood before side-stepping Perry without a finger being laid on him. Albeit in the 51st minute of the half, the Lions looked heavy legged.

They will now ease off this week, Henry admitted, to have a full tank for the tests. But as he also said in the aftermath of Saturday's game: "We need more time together and we need more games together." The problem is they've just run out of one and virtually run out of the other. Time is nearly up.

Scoring sequence: 3 mins: O'Driscoll try, Wilkinson con 0-7; 7 mins: Pinkerton try 5-7; 15 mins: Robinson try, Wilkinson con 5-14; 30 mins: Wilkinson pen 5-17; 34 mins: Robinson try, Wilkinson con 5-24; (half-time 5-24); 46 mins: Cullimore try 10-24; 51 mins: Harris try, Edmonds con 17-24; 65 mins: Wilkinson pen 17-27; 70 mins: Wilkinson try and con 17-34; 83 mins James try, Dawson con 17-41; 85 mins: Edmonds try, Edmonds con 24-41.

New South Wales: D McRae; F Cullimore, L Inman, S Harris, S QuaQua; M Edmonds, S Payne; C Blades, B Cannon, R Moore, J West, T Bowman, S Pinkerton, S Sinau, P Waugh. Replacements: P Besseling for West (half-time), (temp) L Green for Finau, P Noriega for Besseling (both 61-65 mins), D Hickey for Finau (68 mins), Noriega for Moore (68 mins), R Tombs for Inman (71 mins), E Carter for Pinkerton (74 mins), Green for Blades (79 mins), J Mutton for Harris (79 mins), (temp) Pinkerton for West (82-87 mins). Sent-off: McRae (56 mins). Sinbinned: Bowman (1-12 mins), Blades (58-68), Cannon (58-58).

Lions: I Balshaw (England); D James (Wales), B O'Driscoll (Ireland), W Greenwood (England), J Robinson (England); J Wilkinson (England), M Dawson (England); D Morris (Wales), K Wood (Ireland), P Vickery (England), M Johnson (England, capt), D Grewcock ( England), L Dallaglio (England), S Quinnell (Wales), N Back (England). Replacements: R Agora for Greenwood (25 mins), M Perry (England) for Agora (56 mins), R Hill (England) for Back (78 mins), A Healy for Wilkinson (82 mins), T Smith (Scotland) for Quinnell (61-65 mins) and for Vickery (68 mins), R McBryde (Wales) for Wood (87 mins).Sinbinned: Vickery (58-58 mins), Grewcock (58-68 mins).

Referee: S Young (Australia).