Lions start to roar in ominous Wallabies warning

Hindustan Times

16 hours ago

Skipper Maro Itoje says the British and Irish Lions must be sharper and more accurate despite accumulating a bumper 16 tries and 106 points across their opening two games in Australia. Lions start to roar in ominous Wallabies warning
Andy Farrell's men followed up a 54-7 rout of Western Force last weekend with an equally dominant 52-12 thumping of the Queensland Reds on Wednesday, crossing eight times in each game.
Both Super Rugby teams were missing key Wallabies, but it was an ominous shot across the bow of Australia ahead of their three-Test series starting in Brisbane on July 19.
Itoje said they will only get better as their combinations start to gel.
"We have to be better rugby players," said the English lock, who was immense against the Reds, winning nine lineouts, including two steals, and scoring a try.
"We need to be sharper and more accurate. We broke the line a number of times and not all the time we were accurate enough to score."
But Itoje was encouraged by many aspects of their game, with the Reds' performance better than against Force.
"As a team, we just wanted to be better and take a step forward. It wasn't perfect, but genuinely speaking, it was a step in the right direction," he said.
Of concern is their sluggish start, giving up a try in the opening 10 minutes in both games.
But once they find their rhythm, they have been red-hot, rampaging through the second stanza each time without conceding a point.
Coach Andy Farrell said there were plenty of areas to improve on, notably too many handling errors.
But after the slow start, he too was buoyed by how they performed.
"It was a bit of everything, I do not think it was flowing, it was a little bit stop-start," he said. "But when we were flowing, we played some really good stuff.
"We defended pretty well, our collision work was pretty good, hence why we kept them out in the second half.
"The games are coming thick and fast, and we are using those games to fast-track ourselves to the place we want to be," he added.
There were some notable performances against the Reds, including the halfback partnership between Ireland's Jamison Gibson-Park and irrepressible Scottish playmaker Finn Russell.
The Lions pack was physically dominant, led by Itoje and hard-working Welsh flanker Jac Morgan, who was named man-of-the-match, while their defence proved impregnable in the second-half.
"All the lads have put their hands up really well," said Farrell.
Games for the Lions are coming thick and fast, with only a short turnaround before facing the NSW Waratahs in Sydney on Saturday.
Joe Schmidt's Wallabies meet Fiji in Newcastle, north of Sydney, on Sunday in their only warm-up Test before taking on the tourists.
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