Lions 59 Barbarians 8: As an occasion and a meaningful contest, it seems safe to assume that the Lions tour is sure to only get better.
In searing, energy sapping heat and humidity, the intrusions of the PA announcer and the interjection of musical interludes for the water breaks added to the slightly false nature of it all.
Nobody was in a rush between setplays or penalties, and nobody in attendance could have any quibbles.
Ultimately, the Lions had much more stomach for the contest than the Barbarians. Insomuch as there was any relevance to this affair, beyond commercial imperatives, the Lions management will have taken encouragement and relief that they appeared to emerge unscathed from what was eventually an eight tries to one rout.
Along with pretty good skill levels, there were, at times, clear signs of the patterns coming to the fore, with well-rehearsed recycles and targetted runners, as well as using the full width of the pitch, first exploring the blindside.
But it didn’t take two-try Mike Phillips and co long to figure that going up the guts against some flimsy fringe defending met with the best reward of all, with use of their big wingers to punch holes around the sides already looking a definitive ploy.
Several had good nights besides Phillips, the official man of the match, not least the outstanding Justin Tipuric, who laid down quite a marker with his breakdown work and carrying.
The Lions scrum went well on what was a productive night for Mako Vunipola against a wilting Martin Castrogiovanni, Paul O’Connell led from the front in typical fashion and, a la Tipuric, Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies laid down markers in midfield.
Stuart Hogg took some good lines which were unluckily rewarded.
The down sides? Tom Youngs’s darts were sometimes awry, Phillips’s service was actually a little ponderous at times and aside from a few handling errors, Owen Farrell often stood too deep.
Whatever about the varying levels of interest in this fixture amongst the Barbarians, Casey Laulala put two huge and high-ish hits in the first four minutes, the second of which, after Hogg ill-advisedly countered and ran straight into the Munster centre, led to Owen Farrell opening the scoring with a 35-metre penalty.
Schalk Brits also showed he was up for it, in a manner of speaking. Farrell had a sluggish, low kick charged down by Nicky Evans, and as he was gently holding onto Brits at the back of the ensuing ruck, his Saracens team-mate swung a left fist into the side of his head.
Farrell, a tempestuous sort, not unreasonably retaliated with a mixture of a shove and a trip and after recourse to a replay on the big screen Steve Walsh overturned his original penalty to the Baabaas and sinbinned Brits.
Farrell, needlessly, applauded the decision.
However, the Lions made scant use of their numerical advantage in the 10 minutes that followed, despite growing superiority in the scrums.
Sean Maitland failed to gather and score from Jonathan Davies’s clever kick ahead. A tad conservatively, Paul O’Connell opted for a shot at the sticks off a penalty close to the left corner, which Farrell missed and instead Elliot Daly drew the sides level with a well-struck 45 metre kick.
Another scrum penalty enabled Farrell to restore the lead in between the Lions missing a couple of chances.
Richie Gray took a good line but Hogg couldn’t hold on, and would probably have scored with another good line from deep but the swift and difficult offload was too much to ask of O’Connell.
Finally they made the breakthrough, with Davies’s half-break and offload to his midfield sidekick Roberts. Phillips was nearly over from a trademark snipe before O’Connell plunged over.
Within four minutes Phillips had a productive second snipe in succession when handing off Sergio Parisse and taking Joe Rokocoko’s tackle to swivel and finish one-handed.
Farrell converted both and with the last kick of the half rewarded another scrum penalty to make it 23-3 at the break.
Within three minutes of the resumption, Dimitri Yahvili kicked out on the full and Phillips scored his second try off the ensuing top ball from Dan Lydiate, just outside the 22, when his dummy inside Sam Jones made the flanker slip and the scrumhalf ran in untouched.
Rokocoko brilliantly denied Tipuric a try under the posts with a covering tackle after the flanker had cut through off Vunipola’s offload, before the Lions came within one pass of the try of the night. Hogg took a return pass from Alex Cuthbert to ignite a counter-attack across the pitch with the Welsh centres, Toby Felatua, Tipuric and Maitland; Tipuric latching onto the winger’s kick ahead and linking with Farrell whose attempted try-scoring pass to Maitland was cut out by Sam Jones.
Worse followed for Farrell, whose pass to Davies merely ‘yorked’ the midfield between his ankles, and the Baabaas moved the ball wide quickly for Rokocoko to step inside Felatau with ease and put Kahn Fotuali’i over.
Although this prompted the Baabaas to play to type, it also gave the Lions opportunities off counters. Roberts latched onto Jones’s loose pass to Evans to set up Davies for a try, Jonny Sexton converting, and Cuthbert forced the turnover from which Conor Murray, Faletau and Roberts enabled the winger to show impressive wheels for a run-up the touchline.
Murray could feel even better about himself when, after George North had trucked it up the middle in an interesting last quarter run-out at outside centre, the Munster scrumhalf dummied and beat Andrea Lo Cicero before putting Cuthbert over again.
The Baabaas hadn’t the energy to withstand a Lions lineout maul, from which Lydiate scored to reward a typically hard-working 80 minutes stint.
Faced with his third angled conversion wide to the right, Sexton finally nailed one and an eighth and last try came on the 80 minute mark.
A trademark Cian Healy provided the early impetus, and Sexton was also heavily involved before his quick transfer close to the gain line from Murray’s pass put replacement captain Alun Wyn Jones over.
Alas, Sexton missed the conversion.
Scoring sequence: 4 mins - Farrell pen 3-0; 16 mins - Daly pen 3-3; 21 mins - Farrell pen 6-3; 28 mins - O'Connell try, Farrell con 13-3; 32 mins - Phillips try, Farrell con 20-3; 40 (=1 min) - Farrell pen 23-3; (half-time 23-3); 43 mins - Phillips try, Farrell con 30-3; 57 mins - Fotuali'i try 30-8; 58 mins - Davies try, Sexton con 37-8; 61 mins - Cuthbert try 42-8; 69 mins - Cuthbert try 47-8; 75 mins - Lydiate try, Sexton con 54-8; 80 mins - AW Jones try 59-8.
British & Irish Lions: S Hogg (Glasgow Warriors/Scotland); A Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues/Wales), J Davies (Scarlets/Wales), J Roberts (Cardiff Blues/Wales), S Maitland (Glasgow Warriors/Scotland); O Farrell (Saracens/England), M Phillips (Bayonne/Wales); M Vunipola (Saracens/England), R Hibbard (Ospreys/Wales), A Jones (Ospreys/Wales), R Gray (Scotland), P O'Connell (Munster/Ireland, captain), D Lydiate (Dragons/Wales), J Tipuric (Ospreys/Wales), T Faletau (Dragons/Wales). Replacements _ A Wyn Jones (Ospreys/Wales) for O'Connell (29-37 and 63mins), T Youngs (Leicester Tigers/England) for Hibbard (53 mins), C Healy (Leinster/Ireland) for Vunipola, M Stevens (Saracens/England) for A Jones (both 55 mins), C Murray (Munster/Ireland for Phillips, J Sexton (Leinster/Ireland) for Farrell (both 57 mins), J Heaslip (Leinster/Ireland) for Faletau (63 mins), G North (Scarlets/Wales) for Roberts (67 mins).
Barbarians: J Payne (Ulster); J Rokocoko (Bayonne & New Zealand), E Daly (Wasps), C Laulala (Munster & New Zealand), T Ngwenya (Biarritz & USA); N Evans (Harlequins & New Zealand), D Yachvili (Biarritz & France); P James (Bath & Wales), S Brits (Saracens & South Africa), M Castrogiovanni (Leicester & Italy), M Wentzel (Wasps & South Africa), D Mumm (Exeter & Australia), S Manoa (Northampton & USA), S Jones (London Wasps), S Parisse (Stade Francais & Italy, captain) Replacements: L Ghiraldini (Benetton Treviso & Italy) for Manoa (10-18 mins) and for Brits (43 mins), I Harinordoquy (Biarritz & France) for Mumm (53 mins), K Fotuali'i (Ospreys & Samoa) for Yachvili (both 53 mins), D Jones (Ospreys & Wales) for James, J Hamilton (Gloucester & Scotland) for Wentzel, M Tindall (Gloucester & England) for Ngwenya (all 58 mins), A Lo Cicero (Racing Metro & Italy) for Castrogiovanni (63 mins), J Hook (Perpignan & Wales) for Laulala (68 mins).
Referee: Steve Walsh (Australia).
