Discipline swing proves vital to Lions’ comeback
Discipline can win and lose games. This Test match reinforced that notion. For the first 25 minutes it looked like it would scupper the Lions chances of getting the series-winning victory. Andy Farrell’s side conceded three penalties in the first 10 minutes, six by the 22nd minute, the last of which cost the tourists a player, as right wing Tommy Freeman received a yellow card for cumulative team offences.
Australia won that period 12-0, led by 18 points at one stage but it was the home side that were left to rue their transgressions in a costly period before the interval. They gave the Lions access to their half and the visitors helped themselves to a couple of tries. In the final 58 minutes of the match the Lions conceded just three penalties, and it was that improvement in discipline that was crucial especially in a fraught finale.
Lions’ scrum dominance finally pays off
Australia won the penalty count at the scrum 3-0 last week but in Melbourne the Lions flipped that statistic on its head. There would have been a huge frustration in the Lions’ changing room at half-time that their ‘dominance’ at scrum time in the opening 40 minutes wasn’t rewarded to a greater extent than the single penalty that they were awarded.
Referee Andrea Piardi was content at times to encourage the ball to be played, even when the 16 bodies lunged to earth. He was also happy to go for multiple resets which was at odds with Ben O’Keeffe’s style of officiating in the first Test.
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Whatever scrum coach John Fogarty and the pack discussed at half-time from a technical perspective it had the desired effect. The two penalties and a free-kick were so important in the context of ensuring the Lions were able to get field position at crucial times.
6-2 split backfires after Potter injury
How many times nowadays do you see a coach opt for a 6-2 split on the bench only for the gambit to backfire. It’s probably worth a case study, to see how fate reacts when tempted in these circumstances.
Australian coach Joe Schmidt opted for that format among the replacements, picking six forwards, with scrumhalf Tate McDermott and Ben Donaldson covering the backline. It was Sod’s law that the Wallabies would then lose right wing Harry Potter to injury early in the first half.
It completely skewed what Schmidt could then do to maybe change up matters in the second half. No one would fault McDermott’s attitude or application but there were a couple of tackles in the second half that he failed to stick, while also trying to play a Test match in an unfamiliar position. How much it compromised the Aussies’ attack and defence will only be known to those in a gold and green jumper.
Departure of Skelton and Valetini hit Wallaby power game
The expression ‘small margins’ can be a bit of a sporting cliche but when Joe Schmidt and his players reflect on the 29-26 defeat at the MCG they might be tempted to curse fortune or fate. Looking at the manner in which Australia started the game, the power of their carrying, the fluency, nuance and skills they displayed on a counterattack and the ruthless manner in which they exploited a one-man advantage, they will rue not only conceding two tries in the blink of an eye before half-time but the loss of two huge players, Rob Valetini and Will Skelton, who had helped the Wallabies dominate up to that point.
Their physicality in the first half was pivotal to the Aussie dominance and losing Valetini at half-time and Skelton early in the second half definitely hurt the home side’s chances. Australia beat 41 defenders to the Lions 20 and made 11 line-breaks to six; so perhaps looking at what they didn’t do might uncover more answers.
Keenan shows that class is permanent
Hugo Keenan’s try to win the Test series provided a lovely redemptive moment for a player who has made a Test match career in being consistently excellent. His lapses in the game against the Waratahs were completely out of character, so to learn that he had a gastro bug, spent way too much time running to a toilet and lost six kilograms, explained why he was off-colour that day, literally and figuratively.
There were moments in this second Test where he enjoyed some pivotal interventions, saving a 50/22, emblematic of the manner in which he covered every blade of grass, his aerial work, ability to do the right thing – twice in the Huw Jones try – and then that little ‘Sevens shimmy,’ to get Len Ikitau to sit down on his heels and then beat the Aussie centre to the angle and the try-line. No more deserving person to have the final say.
