The British and Irish Lions weren’t perfect in Canberra on Wednesday night, but tourists will sort at least half of the pairings as the Wallabies suffer in the fly-half crisis.
Man of the Match’s Jamison Gibson Park and Flyhalf Finn Russell won the Lions’ 36-24 Brunby, drawing a classy cameo with Garry Ringos, Dan Sheehan, Tadge Farron, Jack Conan and Marcus Smith’s classy cameo in place of Blair Kinghorn.
However, it was Gibson Park that controlled the tempo in particular and distributed it brilliantly to Russell. Beyond the knock-on at the base of the rack and the dangerous passes behind his own Goarin, what brought a 5m scrum for Brumby was perfect for Gibson Park.
“The big boys before have delivered a great platform for me, making my job easier,” Gibson Park told Stan Sports full time. “It was fun because there were not only world class athletes outside me, but Finn Russell pulling the strings.”
It was the second time Gibson Park and Russell started together on tour after the Reds and duo paired up in Brisbane last week. The Scottish fly half began with a Force victory a few days ago, but perhaps the pairing of half of the Lions’ first-choice pairing will be placed on ice for their first test at Suncorp Stadium in 10 days.
It’s a luxury that Wallabies don’t have, and has great uncertainty about who will start in half after Noah Reracio’s neck injury. Australia’s No. 10th was removed from the series on Tuesday evening after undergoing surgery just two days after he was released from the hospital after being injured.
Wallabies manager Joe Schmidt confirmed his team will face the Lions on Friday afternoon, and speculation is growing about whether he will try to add James O’Connor and Bernard Foley to his group, but Tan Edded will get the chance to tie him down in the Auntz Invitational XV on Saturday night. Ben Donaldson, meanwhile, is preferred to start his first Test at the fly half.
But anyone who runs out in Brisbane has run out of regular game time. That is, unless Schmidt attempted to pair Tate McDermott, who started in 9th place against Fiji, his Queensland Reds teammate Tom Lina was under a cloud of ongoing injuries.
But it’s all going to have little impact for Lions coach Andy Farrell, who saw his team improve 4-0 in Australia despite admitting an opening try in Canberra. Farrell would have been pleased with the scrum on his side, and the way they shifted the ball as their handling continued, it was not exciting for the Lions boss that James Lowe couldn’t finish the first half try with a casual putdown.
They also fired up some reboots and exposed them in Brumbies’ smartball movements. However, visitors have grown well into the game against Australia’s best Super Rugby franchise, despite the lack of seven wallabies patrons.
And for all but the last nine minutes, throughout, that countryman, Irish Great, and now coach La Ronan O’Gala, Ronan O’Gala, paid the ultimate tribute at halftime in Canberra.
“There’s just a little bay in the class. If you look at 9 and 10, they’re playing at a different tempo and speed. That’s what the test players do and the experienced test players do,” Ogara told Stansport at the end of the first half.
“And I think Gibson Park is exquisite. He knows when to add a tempo, when to slow it down a bit, and Russell is manipulating them (behind that).
“He’s grown up in New Zealand so obviously his ball skills are exceptional. But I think there’s an advantage to playing in Ireland when wind and rain falls and it’s a difficult situation. His kick game, he rarely forgets the ball. Tempo.
“And I think he has a great brain and I think he can scan with a run like there are very few other nine people in the world… he’s an exceptional runner and I think he has everything in his game.
Meanwhile, Smith may quickly feel like he is the last guy standing in fullback. Elliot Daly had already been removed from the tour and Hugo Keenan spent a poor night against Waratah in Sydney, causing tourists to lose Blair Kinghorn to a leg injury just 25 minutes after the Canberra crash.
Smith set up one attempt for Ring Rose before getting out of the bench and finishing another one himself.