Tom Curry's display shows Andy Farrell was right to trust his instinct

Times

2 days ago

Anyone who has questioned or criticised Andy Farrell and his coaches on this tour should be eating humble pie after the first Test. His team selection was absolutely spot on.
There is no doubting the quality of the performances of some of those fringe players such as Jac Morgan and Henry Pollock in the warm-up matches, but the performances of Tom Curry and Tadhg Beirne in particular highlighted why Farrell got it so right when so many other people got it so wrong. Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones in the centres were excellent too.
There was a huge gulf in class between the British & Irish Lions and Australia in Brisbane, even if the winning margin was only eight points. That has been the case in every match since they touched down in Australia. In fact, the most competition they've had has probably been in their own training sessions and that is when most of the selection pointers will have been highlighted.
You could have made an argument for any one of three players – Curry, Morgan or Josh Van der Flier – to be picked at No7 but, given the lack of genuine opposition throughout the tour, Farrell went with his instincts and probably even what he saw before the tour. Curry rewarded him with eight carries, 11 tackles, a try and, in a brilliant passage of play shortly after half-time, a clever lineout steal and smart offload to send Dan Sheehan across the line. Beirne, his fellow flanker, was named man of the match.
From the games we've seen, you could have picked any XV from this squad and that's largely the problem when it comes to touring Australia with the Lions. Every match in New Zealand and South Africa is very tough, but that simply hasn't been the case this year.
The Lions definitely saved their best 40 minutes of the tour so far for the first half of this Test. Admittedly their opponents are a limited Wallabies side who looked every bit the team that was ranked eighth in the world recently – they snuck up to sixth before this Test but were then shorn of key players such as Rob Valetini, Will Skelton and Langi Gleeson.
They were always going to struggle with the power of the Lions and you had to feel for young Tom Lynagh making his first Test start at fly half, who had no real options for ball-carriers. The Australians looked nervous and naive and for all the pre-match hype about Joe Schmidt being such a wonderful coach and having a few tricks up his sleeve… well, he's not a magician.
That said, perhaps many people have forgotten that rugby at Test level – at any level – is about the team that physically dominates their opponent. In the modern game we sometimes forget about the brutality of Test rugby. It is won nine times out of ten by the team who dominate physically and dominate the gain line. In that, the Lions were a class apart.
As well as Curry and Beirne, Joe McCarthy was superb and (some people in South Africa might not like me saying this) I thought Sheehan looked like the best hooker in the world right now. When you have that kind of dominance and outstanding half-backs in Jamison Gibson-Park and Finn Russell, that is very difficult to play against. Gibson-Park also looked world class: his decision-making and box-kicking alone would have won him the man-of-the-match award in any other contest. Russell is simply outstanding.
The accuracy, decision-making and physical dominance in the first half laid the foundations for a game that was done and dusted by half-time. Defensively the Lions' line speed was of the highest quality and that shows a team that is totally united and has a deep understanding of what they're all about.
It should have been a much more emphatic victory. For some strange reason, the momentum was lost as soon as the replacements arrived, but the game was over well before Marcus Smith added the penalty to put the Lions more than two scores in front.
Sometimes Test matches are one-sided and it's reflected on the scoreboard and other times it's not but the reality is that if it was a much closer game, those replacements would have come on later. The Lions had the luxury of making changes much earlier.
As underwhelmed as we've all felt in tour matches so far, we know the quality that exists within this playing group and there is more to come. That first half demonstrated that when they do get it right, the Lions put themselves in a different category to their opponent.
Great sport is based on great rivalries and no one doubts the rivalry between the Lions and Australia, but it's up to Australia to come to the party. They haven't got the necessary tools to make it a contest. Clearly Schmidt will have to go back to his bag of tricks to find something that will extend this series to a third game. Hopefully for them, he may be able to call on some much-needed heavy artillery to give his team more options.
There haven't been that many winning Lions tours because it's a hard thing to do, but I fully expect them to win this one. Given they are now halfway there, as fans watching from wherever you are, ask yourself this: Do you truly believe in the British & Irish Lions and its future? If the answer is an emphatic yes like me, then stop moaning about Farrell and selection and start getting behind him and this entire group, because regardless of selection and who they are playing, they deserve our full support. The future of the Lions depends on it.