Red hot Tom Curry and Tadhg Beirne set out Lions stall leaving Wallabies an uphill task

RTÉ News​

4 days ago

A dominant first half led the Lions to a straightforward victory in the first Test match against Australia.
Some notable performance justified Andy Farrell's selection, particularly in the back row, showing that there's a lot more to team selection.
Public focus was on most recent form, whereas Farrell proved why he's the man in charge with his selection of Tadhg Beirne and Tom Curry.
The Beirne selection was less surprising.
He's one of the head coach's go-to guys in the Irish team and there are much clearer intangible attributes to Beirne.
The Kildare man is a captain and leader while being a dominant setpiece player.
It wasn't a case of whether Beirne would start, it was more about whether he would play in the second row or back row.
While accepting his player of the match award after the 27-19 win, Beirne discussed his recent form being poorer than he would have liked, yet unsurprisingly, he stepped up when the challenge was at its highest and he put in a standout performance.
Beirne won a penalty in the breakdown within 20 seconds, giving the Lions an immediate 3-0 lead, which meant that Australia were under pressure from the beginning.
Aside from his leading tackle count, Beirne had two breakdown turnovers and a crucial maul turnover when Australia were beginning to find some momentum.
As Farrell said, Beirne is a Test-match animal, and he justified his selection after receiving some criticism during the week.
The more surprising selection was Curry, considering the form and quality of other players in the back row.
While the Sale forward won't give you the same volume of match moments as Beirne, or the other back-row options for that matter, everything that Curry does is of the highest intensity.
Not only did he set the physical tone for the Lions from his very first tackle, Curry was clever in his work rate and impacted the game at crucial times.
He certainly strikes me as a guy that thinks his way through the game, and prepares himself both mentally and physically behind the scenes.
Australia's Tom Lynagh made his starting debut on Saturday.
His timing was pretty poor in attack, contributing to a lot of clunky play from the home side.
However, Curry was a thorn in his side and disrupted any chance that Lynagh had of leading a cohesive attack.
Joe Schmidt had clearly set Australia up for a clever move off their first scrum launch play.
Teams often use a dummy play down the short side of a ruck or scrum to force the opposition back field to move across to that side.
They then throw the ball back in the other direction to a more vulnerable defence because the backfield are out of position from chasing hard on the initial side.
The Wallabies tried that in the first play, but when the ball was flashed back across the scrum to Lynagh running flat, Curry was aware and rushed the young out-half.
It meant that centre Len Ikitau's timing off Lynagh was poor and the Australian out-half's kick to the manipulated back field didn't hit its mark.
It's a small thing and might not be caught upon your first watch of the game, but small, sharp moments like this is what makes Curry shine in Test matches.
He stayed up field and alive in the defensive line, despite the ball being thrown in the other direction.
It might sound basic, but top internationals do the basics consistently and effectively. Club players switch off in that moment, Curry didn't.
He had another standout moment from an Australian lineout overthrow move.
The England international cut out the throw, offloaded to Finn Russell who sent Huw Jones into space.
Curry didn't stop and admire his contribution.
He raced around in support and when Jones faded onto a Russell pass to create a 3 v 2 situation on the right-hand touchline, Curry was on hand to finish the 2 v 1 after receiving the pass from Russell and Dan Sheehan (below) finished in the corner.
They're small moments that make big impacts.
These are moments that don't show up on the stats sheet.
Curry won't have the same volume of actions as Jac Morgan or Josh van der Flier, something that was used as evidence against his selection during last week.
However, when you notice the impact of the moments that he has, he more than justified the chance that Farrell gave him, in an unbelievably competitive position.
International rugby doesn't rely on the same volume of efforts as club rugby.
The ball-in-play time is often lower and players contribute equally.
At club level you get top players doing the work of others.
At international level that's rarely needed. Curry fit into a system and when called upon, he gave everything in the moment.
He played on the edge, and might have been penalised or even carded at times, but good players can play on the edge and find a way to stay out of trouble.
Curry did that for the Lions last weekend and he had a huge part to play in the dominant parts of their victory.
It's not to say that Van der Flier, Morgan or Henry Pollock wouldn't have contributed very positively to a Lions win, they probably would have. Curry certainly did.
Farrell can enjoy the first victory, knowing that when his selection was questioned, the players that he showed loyalty to, paid him back in spades.
He'll have to prove his value as a coach once more next week in what is arguably the most difficult game.
Win and the series is over as a contest, with a freebie to finish off the tour.
Lose and it's a draw with all the momentum against the Lions.
There'll be a few impactful players returning to the wounded Wallabies.
I'm not sure they'll have enough impact to turn this Test series around. The hosts were pretty poor for large parts of the game.
The Lions indiscipline left the Wallabies back into the game.
With their replacement half-backs, Australia showed that they have something to build on.
You'd expect Tate McDermott and Ben Donaldson to take control from the start on Saturday and give Schmidt's side a better chance of competing in the opening quarter, instead of playing for pride in the closing one.
The Lions will make some changes too.
Their bench didn't provide the punch that Farrell would have expected.
McCarthy's injury might force at least one change, otherwise I think the starting pack will be the same, with a greater chance of changes coming onto the bench and potentially a back-three player.
It's still all to play for and Australia could pull off a surprise this weekend.
However, they didn't have enough punch across the pitch last week, and I don't think the return of Rob Valetini, Will Skelton and even a few others are going to tame this Lions tour.