Too far-fetched an ending to be fiction

Who writes these guys' scripts anyway? Trailing 19-3 and being beaten out the gate half-an-hour in, and behind for the entire night, they hung in there and concocted one of the great Lions tries in the ninth minute of injury-time through more than a doze n phases to draw the sides level.

Then Matt Dawson nails the match-winning conversion. Pride in the Lions and all that, with the prime villain ultimately turned hero.

More action movie than technical masterpiece, it was still a compellingly entertaining game. for all that which built up to the grandest of finales.. In the end, a bedraggled, neglected lot had redeemed themselves on what will be the final appearance on t our and even in a Lions( jersey for many of them.

It was a far from perfect display. The Lions( defence, to begin with especially, had more holes than the proverbial colander, with the Ronan O'Gara, Scott Gibbs and Mark Taylor midfield axis the primary culprits, and no Martyn Williams in sight to plug the gaps.

However, the leakage was everywhere, with the Lions defending on the back foot and seemingly not up for it. The ball retention and general haphazardness of the display suggested one last indignity for the mostly unwanted and homeward-bound dirt-trackers, on the final appearance of their tour while, as usual on this tour, Matt Dawson played for himself.

Perhaps another maverick, the feisty Austin Healey, may have been similarly motivated in this, his sixth appearance of the tour but first on the wing. Nevertheless, he gave one of the great all-round wing performances by a Lion which was ironic given that he was quoted in the match programme as saying: "I cannot see me playing on the wing at any stage because Graham Henry likes big wingers."

Again lacking cohesion and organisation, many were guilty of either trying too hard or not enough. The Brumbies, fresh from their three-match tour of NZ and determined to give the Munster-bound Jim Williams a fond farewell, worked their intricate patterns behind the gain-line where the prodigal Pat Howard ran the show for the Brumbies to run in three tries.

By comparison, they were dictating the terms of contacting, invariably getting over the gain-line in the tackle while their handling skills from one to 15 were far superior early on.

There was a hint of a forward pass as hard-running full- back Mark Bartholomeusz crashed through O'Gara's tackle to score. The second phase execution of left-winger Willie Gordon's try in the corner was textbook _- handling along the line in front of the body with one receiver breaking stride-strike _- before Pat Ryan broke Gibbs' tackle from Howard's superb take and miss pass, eventually finding fellow-flanker Des Tuiavii in support for a well-taken try.

Ironically, scrum-half Travis Hall landed the first two conversions from the touchline but, significantly in the long run, missed the third from beside the posts.

It was another sub-zero night in Australian Capital Territory, and even the taxi driver and the security guard at the war memorial had warned us that the spacious and open Bruce Stadium was the coldest place in Canberra.

It seemed chillier still as, unsurprisingly, the barmy army gave the extra trip south a miss and so the parochial crowd chanted "boring, boring, boring" as Dawson failed to augment an earlier penalty with a second attempt. This had followed a big break by Dorian West and it was interesting to see who was willing to stand up and be counted at this juncture, and flawed though they were O'Gara and Wallace were foremost amongst those trying to make things happen.

O'Gara's cool nerve and trademark ability to hang tough helped bring Gibbs into the game and also turn the tables on the increasingly less influential Howard. In all of this, Dawson's tap penalties had decidedly mixed success but Gibbs tellingly supported one and then O'Gara made a lovely cut but Scott Murray couldn't hold the straightforward seven-point inside pass. Likewise Mark Taylor's support failed to convert a clean incision by Wallace before Healey pilfered an intercept -try from half-way and exchanged some views with the abrasive Justin Harrison on the way back.

Game on though, all the more so after the break when the Lions opted for some pick and go up the middle by the pack, and then O'Gara cut through and Wallace supported for a fine try.

Davidson too became highly influential, delivering clean line-out ball , defending Harrison well on the ACT throw, contesting restarts, clearing bodies away at ruck time and bolstering an improved defence.

Somehow there were no further tries until deep into injury-time, a brace of penalties apiece by the respective scrumhalves scarcely reflecting a fluctuating, edge-of-seat second period. The Lions' decision-making was curious at times to say the least, riskily and elaborately spreading the ball in their own territory rather than play for position, as O'Gara did once in the prelude to a three-pointer, and they were lucky that the officials missed ACT sub Radike Samo reaching for the line after muscling through Dawson and Martin Corry. Having persistently turned down the option of a try off a line-out for a pot at goal, eventually the equation was quite simple: Try or Bust - and, off the last play at that, as the buzzer sounded deep into their final drive.

Digging deep for each other, t he skills levels were exemplary _- Murray now stooping to hold on to an knee-high off-load when a knock-on would have ended the game. It was Munsteresque as O'Gara ran on to Dawson's passes and attacked the gain -line through countless phases, finally looping around Darren Morris to gather the prop's eye-popping one-handed reverse pass, then making an around-the-corner pass of his own for Iain Balshaw to link with the twinkle-toed Healey.

He calmly danced inside two tacklers and risked decapitation to nervelessly narrow the conversion angle further before exchanging further pleasantries with Harrison, who should be reprimanded for tossing his head gear at Healey, while winger Damian McInally snidely bumped him.

A try fit to rank right up there in Lions' folklore. Cue Dawson's difficult conversion. But you knew it would go over. Sport has an uncanny habit of writing these ridiculous scripts.

Scoring Sequence: 7 mins: Bartholomeusz try, Hall con 7-0; 11 mins: Gordon try, Hall con 14-0; 18 mins: Dawson pen 14-3; 25 mins: Tuiavii try 19-3; 37 mins: Healey try, Dawson con 19-10; 39 mins: Hall pen 22-10; (half-time 22-10); 44 mins: Wallace try, Dawson con 22-17; 57 mins Dawson pen 22-20; 65 mins: Hall pen 25-20; 76 mins: Dawson pen 25-23; 83 mins: Hall pen 28-23; 89 mins: Healey try, Dawson con 28-30.

Act Brumbies: M Bartholomeusz; D McInally, G Bond, J Holbeck, W Gordon; P Howard, T Hall; A Scott, A Freier, M Weaver, J Harrison, D Vickerman, P Ryan, J Williams (capt), D Tuavii. Replacements: D Pussey for D Vickerman (47 mins), R Samo for Willikams (53 mins), C Pither for Gordon (77 mins), J Huxley for Holbeck (79)

Lions: I Balshaw (England); B Cohen (England), M Taylor (Wales), S Gibbs (Wales), A Healey (England); R O'Gara (Ireland), M Dawson (England); D Morris (Wales), D West (England), D Young (Wales, capt), J Davidson (Ireland), S Murray (Scotland), D Wallace (Ireland), M Corry (England), M Williams (Wales). Replacements:_ D James (Wales) for Taylor (16-23 mins) and for Williams (67-77 mins), J Leonard (England) for Young (77 mins).

Referee: P Marshall (Australia.