Five quick hits: Wallabies Suaalii denied try, Tom Curry not given yellow card as British and Irish Lions bea

Australia Broadcast Center

19-07-2025

The British and Irish Lions started the Test series with a bang and only let up in the closing stages, winning 27-19 in front of 52,229 fans at Lang Park.
The Lions were the better team for longer periods on the night, but the Wallabies may feel hard done by after a couple of calls went against them.
Here are the five quick hits from the first Test in Brisbane.
Finn Russell has been making a habit of orchestrating Scotland's magnificent back line weapons around the park in recent years.
Who knows, one might have asked, how that back line would operate off the back of a dominant pack?
Wonder no more.
With a penalty coming, the Lions moved the ball out to Dan Sheehan, Russell with a magic pass out of contact to release the Irishman, who found his New Zealand-born teammate James Lowe.
The Wallabies defence recycled but were too congested, giving Russell the chance to see a lonely Sione Tuipulotu in midfield, all on his own 20 metres away.
The floated pass was inch-perfect and the Lions had the first try.
The Lions have had issues at fullback.
England's Elliot Daly broke his arm against the Reds, the late-arriving Blair Kinghorn did his knee in Canberra.
So Ireland 15 Hugo Keenan made the cut as fullback for the first Test and looked pretty good, right up until Max Jorgensen picked his pocket in an aerial challenge to race away and score in the corner.
It was a desperately needed score from the Wallabies and perhaps highlighted an area that they could try to exploit more in Melbourne.
Timing is everything in sport.
A fraction late and the opposition will get the upper hand. A fraction early? You could be in the sin bin.
So when Tom Curry was a fraction of a second early in nailing Tom Lynagh as he rose to claim a high kick, the Wallabies and the crowd in Brisbane were furiously demanding a card.
Referee Ben O'Keeffe said it was only a penalty, something the home team arrived, on mass, to discuss with him as they went into the sheds at half-time.
The incident did earn the Wallabies a penalty, but nothing more.
Curry had been busy in the first half, making two monster shots on Fraser McReight in particular and was hugely influential as the Lions scored almost immediately following the restart with his offload, releasing Russell.
The Wallabies may have felt hard done by after Curry's non-yellow card, but they'd have been just as miffed when Tadhg Furlong escaped censure for a clean out of Len Ikitau.
Here's what Ben O'Keeffe told a less-than-impressed Brisbane crowd.
"We do have foul play. We have shoulder to the head," he said.
"It starts as a yellow card. The mitigation is the fact the player is rising up. So he's changing his hit position.
"It's a penalty only."
Joseph-Ausuko Suaalii had been kept desperately quiet in the contest until, with around 25 minutes to go, he burst into the action.
A massive hit up got the Wallabies over the gain line first up re-introduced him to the Lions defensive line.
Then, another crashing run saw him felled 5 metres short of the try line, only to be dragged over the line by the Wallaby support.
Initially, a try was given, but Maro Itoje was pleading with O'Keeffe to look at the replay and, much to the home fans' frustration, he did.
Ben Earl just about wrapped his arms around Suaalii in the initial contact, despite a condescending query of "are you sure?" from Wallabies skipper Harry Wilson.
Suaalii was able to spin out of that tackle but the Lions had their hands all over the ball, obligating Suaalii to let it go, which he didn't, so the penalty went the Lions' way.