Lions roar and crack half-century in tour opener
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Lions overpower Force 54–7 to launch Australian tour in style
By Jonathan Drennan
The British and Irish Lions have made the perfect start to their Australian tour, brushing off jet lag and last Saturday's surprise loss to Argentina to beat the Force 54–7 in Perth.
During the first half, rugby fans in Perth were briefly allowed to dream the impossible: a win against the Lions was possible.
The Force played fearless running rugby that stunned some of the best players in the world, with wingers Mac Grealy and Dylan Pietsch starring under the lights at Optus Stadium. Prop Tom Robertson also shut down Ireland's famed tighthead Tadhg Furlong in the scrum.
After the game, Force coach Simon Cron revealed that tighthead prop Oli Hoskins had broken his little toe on his second day of training, but had insisted on playing through the pain in his final game of professional rugby in front of his home crowd.
Before kickoff, betting shops were willing to pay $17 on a Force win and by the final siren, it was clear why the bookmaker very rarely loses. Eight tries for the Lions to the Force's one was as conclusive as it gets.
After a stuttering opening forty minutes where the Lions scrambled into the changing rooms grateful to be 21-7 in front, they then showed their vast potential and made their mark in Australia.
In the second half, the offloading game that the Lions had frequently failed to execute in their shock defeat against the Pumas in Dublin found its perfect rhythm.
The chief tormentor of the Force's exhausted defence was Canberra-raised Mack Hansen, helping the Lions to score five unanswered tries.
Hansen has a tattoo of his Lions coach Andy Farrell on his leg as part of a bet for winning the Six Nations two years ago, and the former Great Britain rugby league legend singled out his winger for special praise, despite his international teammate Joe McCarthy being awarded player of the match.
'The player of the game by a country mile was Mack Hansen,' Farrell said.
'Back and forward, full length of the field, fighting for his team on his own. That's what a Lion should 100% do for his teammates.'
The Lions scored the first try of the game within just 90 seconds, a perfectly timed cross field kick found the skipper Dan Sheehan, who played a perfect pass to his Ireland winger James Lowe, who immediately threw an offload for the hooker to finish.
Three minutes later, through brute force, the Force climbed off the canvas and captain Nic White burrowed over, 12 years after cruelly missing the Lions tour through a shoulder injury.
The Force had shocked the Lions with relentless physicality and expansive play, with Pietsch desperate to impress and succeeding through the game, giving Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt plenty to think about ahead of the Test series.
The Force turned down two early penalty kicks in front of the posts, deciding to go to the corner both times; ultimately, their lack of pragmatism against some of the world's best players was brutally punished.
Henry Pollock had played just 31 minutes of Test rugby for England and announced himself onto the Lions tour with a brilliant break, waiting before eventually getting hauled down by rookie five-eighth Alex Harford and popping up a pass to create a simple run in for Welsh halfback Tomos Williams.
After so much good work, the Force came brutally unstuck after expecting Finn Russell to kick for the corner, shuffling back with their backs turned, instead the Scottish playmaker spotted the wide open gap, tapped and sprinted half the field, before popping it up to his full back Elliot Daly to dive over for the third try of the night three minutes before half-time.
Although the Lions had been starved of the possession they may have expected to enjoy before the game, when they were eventually found opportunities, they were ruthless. The Force's brave early resistance started to falter dramatically as the Lions turned up their physicality through Irish second-rower McCarthy.
Six minutes into the second half Sam Carter dropped the ball deep in the Lions' half, the men in red surged 80 metres starting with Mack Hansen before a swift pass to his Irish teammate James Lowe who eventually carved through the Force defence to beautifully offload the ball to his halfback Williams who got his second of the night.
Williams' two tries were countered by a nasty hamstring strain that was getting iced in the changing rooms after the game, and could lead the Lions to call on Scotland's Ben White.
Five minutes later, Hansen again caused havoc, finding space and sending through another Irishman Garry Ringrose, for a try. McCarthy added another after Pollock's smart chip and chase punished the exhausted Force defence.
Daly's second try of the night with nine minutes left was completely unopposed; the English fullback almost jogged sheepishly to dot the ball down under the posts. Replacement halfback Alex Mitchell scored on the siren to end the game at 52-7 and make the Force's blistering start a distant memory.
Twelve years ago, Lions cruised to a 52-point victory over the Force at the old Subiaco Oval. In the new, gleaming surrounds of Optus Stadium on Saturday evening, the scoreboard read marginally better, but it highlighted the scale of the task the Wallabies will face against this Lions team.
The Lions will now travel to Brisbane, where they have a short turnaround and will face the Queensland Reds on Wednesday at an almost sold-out Suncorp Stadium.
'They're (the Reds) a good side, I think we can all see that, they play the game in all sorts of ways,' Farrell said.
'It's not just one way, but they're very good up front, good at playing the tight game in all sorts of different conditions, but they can play expansive rugby as well.
That'll be a real tough test for us on Wednesday, but it's something that we expect from the quality side.'
yesterday 10.31pm
Last thoughts, some key stats and a sign off ....
As the Force and Lions players swap jerseys on Optus Stadium - and an impressive crowd of 46,000 goes home - Force coach Simon Cron has revealed prop Ollie Hoskins played the game with a painful injury after breaking his toe at his first training session last week.
Hoskins only came out of a recent retirement last week to make up numbers for the Force. That's a brave effort.
The major takeaway for the Force tonight? Pietsch was excellent and we probably expected that.
But there is always one unheralded player to stand up against the Lions and tonight that was Mac Grealy. Do yourself a favour: keep an eye on that name. Grealy's was the sort of performance that could see the former Queensland Red win a Wallabies squad call-up in coming weeks and months.
Okay, so I am gonna sign off with the live coverage, and let's do that with a look at the final stats. The one that jumps on this list is 23 offloads for the Lions. Their transition attack was exceptional.
Good evening, thanks for being with us. Keep an eye out for JD's follow-up reporting from Perth, and I will be heading up to Brisbane for the Reds-Lions clash on Wednesday night. Can't wait.
yesterday 10.07pm
Pollock: 'I love big occasions'
Young Henry Pollock has been grabbed by the Stan crew, and you get the sense that won't be the last time.
The flashy no.8 from Northhampton had a superb night out, setting up a try and being a constant presence as a ball runner. He also got in a cheeky stink with Nick Champion de Crespigny.
We'll be seeing a lot more of him.
'We just enjoyed it. We had a bad result against Argentina but we spoke about bouncing back and doing what we do best and hopefully we showed that,' Pollock said.
'It's been a whirlwind so far. I am just trying to take it in my stride. I love big occasions and I love pressure. I am just pumped to be here. It was a fun game and we just enjoyed it.'
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