'Utter rubbish': Lions slam lightning delay criticism
While Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt had been alert to the possibility of a lightning break and said they had a "plan", television broadcast showed Lions players on their phones in the change rooms during a 38-minute delay of the eventual 22-12 defeat in Sydney.
Players had been ordered off the field due to lightning striking near Accor Stadium early in the second half, when the Lions were trailing 8-0.
Both sides were given 10 minutes to warm up, with the Wallabies shooting out to a 15-0 lead shortly after play resumed.
Grilled by the critical British press to clarify the procedures surrounding the lightning delay, Farrell disputed any suggestions his players had failed to use the time seriously.
"That's completely utter rubbish. Utter rubbish," Farrell said.
"You don't know until you know, and when you do know, then you have to agree that the warm-up time allocated is going to be acceptable to both teams.
"We agreed on 10 minutes for the warm-up, and through our advice from our experts in that field, we only made the call to come out five minutes before and stay there so that we'd be ready to go."
Farrell's Wallabies counterpart Schmidt said he had wanted his players to remain connected during the delay.
"We had been warned that there might be lightning, so we had a little bit of a plan," Schmidt said.
"We wanted to make sure that players kept moving, so we had different guys rotating on the bikes.
"We had four balls in the change room that we were just throwing around, just so they could stay connected."
The Wallabies emerged the better side following the delay, with Farrell labelling winger Max Jorgensen's stunning 50-metre runaway try in the 55th minute as "the try that broke the camel's back".
"I suppose what came off the back of that is that Australia hit the ground running and thoroughly deserved their win," Farrell said.
"Rigor mortis was setting in at one stage there for the lads.
"Anyway, I suppose that's what you come to expect with a schedule like a Lions schedule, so we've seen it all now, haven't we?"
A serious head knock to Lions lock James Ryan had soured the opening minutes of the second half, just minutes before the lightning delay.
Ryan had to be stretchered off after copping an accidental knee to the head from Will Skelton, but Farrell confirmed the 29-year-old was in "good spirits".
"He's up and talking. He was out there for a good few minutes," Farrell said.
"But he's back up in good spirits, so hopefully he's going to be fine."
Lions lock Tadhg Beirne, named player of the series, could only describe the loss as a "bittersweet moment".
"We lost tonight, which is obviously a bit crap for us," Beirne said.
"But as 'Faz' says, we'll get over that because at the end of the day, we still won the series.
"It's the last time we'll be in that change room together as a group, and I suppose that's the bitter part, that we won't get that moment again."
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Norris closes gap on Piastri in Hungary thriller
Oscar Piastri tried everything to overtake Lando Norris in a tense finish but his McLaren teammate held on to win the Hungarian Grand Prix and boost his F1 title chances heading into the mid-season break. Norris clung on with worn tyres as Piastri loomed behind him in the final laps. He celebrated on Sunday with a double fist pump on top of his car after claiming McLaren's 200th F1 win by less than a second to cut Piastri's lead to nine points from 16. "I'm dead. It was tough, it was tough," Norris said. "The final stint, with Oscar catching, I was pushing flat out." It was a race shaped as much by smart strategy as gritty driving. Norris briefly dropped to fifth on the first lap but made his tyres last to stop only once, while Piastri changed twice. When race engineer Will Joseph asked Norris on the radio, "Lando, 40 laps on the hard tyre, you up for it?" Norris replied: "Yeah, why not?" Piastri said: "I pushed as hard as I could. After I saw Lando going for a one-stop, I knew I was going to have to overtake on track, which is much easier said than done around here." Looking at his late passing attempt, he said: "I think I needed to be at least a couple of tenths closer which was going to take a mistake from Lando to achieve that. "I felt that was going to be my best chance. You never want to try and save it for the next lap, then it never comes, so I thought I would at least try." Piastri steadily cut into Norris' lead in the latter stages of the race but the British driver held on with old tyres to take the win. Piastri nearly collided with his teammate when he locked up a wheel while trying to pass on the second-to-last lap, earning a mild rebuke from his team. "Remember how we go racing, Oscar," came the warning from his race engineer, Tom Stallard. Norris held on to have the last word in their title fight as F1 heads into a four-week break. "Good racing. Good strategy. Good call," was how Norris summed it up on the radio. For the dominant McLaren drivers, it was their seventh 1-2 finish on the season and the team's 11th victory in 14 races in 2025. George Russell took third for Mercedes after fighting his way past Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in a contest that earned Leclerc a time penalty for nearly colliding with Russell. Defending champion Max Verstappen was only ninth. He stays third in the standings, but drops to 97 points behind Piastri. Leclerc started on pole position with hopes of landing Ferrari its first Grand Prix win of the year, but ended up fourth. "This is so incredibly frustrating. We've lost all competitiveness," he told the team over the radio. Leclerc dropped so far off the pace in his final stint that the two McLaren drivers and Russell questioned what happened to him as they chatted after the race. A day after calling himself "useless" and questioning whether Ferrari might need to replace him, Lewis Hamilton ended up 12th, exactly where he started. Hamilton said he's facing issues "in the background". "When you have a feeling, you have a feeling. There's a lot going on in the background that is not great," Hamilton said. But asked if he'd lost his love of racing, he said no. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: "Lewis is wearing his heart on his sleeve. "It was very raw what he said. He was hard on himself. We have seen it before when he felt he had not met his own expectations." Fernando Alonso took Aston Martin's best result of the season with fifth on a slow track that suited his car, with Gabriel Bortoleto a surprise sixth for Sauber and Lance Stroll seventh in the other Aston Martin. The season resumes with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on August 31. With agencies Oscar Piastri tried everything to overtake Lando Norris in a tense finish but his McLaren teammate held on to win the Hungarian Grand Prix and boost his F1 title chances heading into the mid-season break. Norris clung on with worn tyres as Piastri loomed behind him in the final laps. He celebrated on Sunday with a double fist pump on top of his car after claiming McLaren's 200th F1 win by less than a second to cut Piastri's lead to nine points from 16. "I'm dead. It was tough, it was tough," Norris said. "The final stint, with Oscar catching, I was pushing flat out." It was a race shaped as much by smart strategy as gritty driving. Norris briefly dropped to fifth on the first lap but made his tyres last to stop only once, while Piastri changed twice. When race engineer Will Joseph asked Norris on the radio, "Lando, 40 laps on the hard tyre, you up for it?" Norris replied: "Yeah, why not?" Piastri said: "I pushed as hard as I could. After I saw Lando going for a one-stop, I knew I was going to have to overtake on track, which is much easier said than done around here." Looking at his late passing attempt, he said: "I think I needed to be at least a couple of tenths closer which was going to take a mistake from Lando to achieve that. "I felt that was going to be my best chance. You never want to try and save it for the next lap, then it never comes, so I thought I would at least try." Piastri steadily cut into Norris' lead in the latter stages of the race but the British driver held on with old tyres to take the win. Piastri nearly collided with his teammate when he locked up a wheel while trying to pass on the second-to-last lap, earning a mild rebuke from his team. "Remember how we go racing, Oscar," came the warning from his race engineer, Tom Stallard. Norris held on to have the last word in their title fight as F1 heads into a four-week break. "Good racing. Good strategy. Good call," was how Norris summed it up on the radio. For the dominant McLaren drivers, it was their seventh 1-2 finish on the season and the team's 11th victory in 14 races in 2025. George Russell took third for Mercedes after fighting his way past Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in a contest that earned Leclerc a time penalty for nearly colliding with Russell. Defending champion Max Verstappen was only ninth. He stays third in the standings, but drops to 97 points behind Piastri. Leclerc started on pole position with hopes of landing Ferrari its first Grand Prix win of the year, but ended up fourth. "This is so incredibly frustrating. We've lost all competitiveness," he told the team over the radio. Leclerc dropped so far off the pace in his final stint that the two McLaren drivers and Russell questioned what happened to him as they chatted after the race. A day after calling himself "useless" and questioning whether Ferrari might need to replace him, Lewis Hamilton ended up 12th, exactly where he started. Hamilton said he's facing issues "in the background". "When you have a feeling, you have a feeling. There's a lot going on in the background that is not great," Hamilton said. But asked if he'd lost his love of racing, he said no. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: "Lewis is wearing his heart on his sleeve. "It was very raw what he said. He was hard on himself. We have seen it before when he felt he had not met his own expectations." Fernando Alonso took Aston Martin's best result of the season with fifth on a slow track that suited his car, with Gabriel Bortoleto a surprise sixth for Sauber and Lance Stroll seventh in the other Aston Martin. The season resumes with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on August 31. With agencies Oscar Piastri tried everything to overtake Lando Norris in a tense finish but his McLaren teammate held on to win the Hungarian Grand Prix and boost his F1 title chances heading into the mid-season break. Norris clung on with worn tyres as Piastri loomed behind him in the final laps. He celebrated on Sunday with a double fist pump on top of his car after claiming McLaren's 200th F1 win by less than a second to cut Piastri's lead to nine points from 16. "I'm dead. It was tough, it was tough," Norris said. "The final stint, with Oscar catching, I was pushing flat out." It was a race shaped as much by smart strategy as gritty driving. Norris briefly dropped to fifth on the first lap but made his tyres last to stop only once, while Piastri changed twice. When race engineer Will Joseph asked Norris on the radio, "Lando, 40 laps on the hard tyre, you up for it?" Norris replied: "Yeah, why not?" Piastri said: "I pushed as hard as I could. After I saw Lando going for a one-stop, I knew I was going to have to overtake on track, which is much easier said than done around here." Looking at his late passing attempt, he said: "I think I needed to be at least a couple of tenths closer which was going to take a mistake from Lando to achieve that. "I felt that was going to be my best chance. You never want to try and save it for the next lap, then it never comes, so I thought I would at least try." Piastri steadily cut into Norris' lead in the latter stages of the race but the British driver held on with old tyres to take the win. Piastri nearly collided with his teammate when he locked up a wheel while trying to pass on the second-to-last lap, earning a mild rebuke from his team. "Remember how we go racing, Oscar," came the warning from his race engineer, Tom Stallard. Norris held on to have the last word in their title fight as F1 heads into a four-week break. "Good racing. Good strategy. Good call," was how Norris summed it up on the radio. For the dominant McLaren drivers, it was their seventh 1-2 finish on the season and the team's 11th victory in 14 races in 2025. George Russell took third for Mercedes after fighting his way past Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in a contest that earned Leclerc a time penalty for nearly colliding with Russell. Defending champion Max Verstappen was only ninth. He stays third in the standings, but drops to 97 points behind Piastri. Leclerc started on pole position with hopes of landing Ferrari its first Grand Prix win of the year, but ended up fourth. "This is so incredibly frustrating. We've lost all competitiveness," he told the team over the radio. Leclerc dropped so far off the pace in his final stint that the two McLaren drivers and Russell questioned what happened to him as they chatted after the race. A day after calling himself "useless" and questioning whether Ferrari might need to replace him, Lewis Hamilton ended up 12th, exactly where he started. Hamilton said he's facing issues "in the background". "When you have a feeling, you have a feeling. There's a lot going on in the background that is not great," Hamilton said. But asked if he'd lost his love of racing, he said no. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: "Lewis is wearing his heart on his sleeve. "It was very raw what he said. He was hard on himself. We have seen it before when he felt he had not met his own expectations." Fernando Alonso took Aston Martin's best result of the season with fifth on a slow track that suited his car, with Gabriel Bortoleto a surprise sixth for Sauber and Lance Stroll seventh in the other Aston Martin. The season resumes with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on August 31. With agencies Oscar Piastri tried everything to overtake Lando Norris in a tense finish but his McLaren teammate held on to win the Hungarian Grand Prix and boost his F1 title chances heading into the mid-season break. Norris clung on with worn tyres as Piastri loomed behind him in the final laps. He celebrated on Sunday with a double fist pump on top of his car after claiming McLaren's 200th F1 win by less than a second to cut Piastri's lead to nine points from 16. "I'm dead. It was tough, it was tough," Norris said. "The final stint, with Oscar catching, I was pushing flat out." It was a race shaped as much by smart strategy as gritty driving. Norris briefly dropped to fifth on the first lap but made his tyres last to stop only once, while Piastri changed twice. When race engineer Will Joseph asked Norris on the radio, "Lando, 40 laps on the hard tyre, you up for it?" Norris replied: "Yeah, why not?" Piastri said: "I pushed as hard as I could. After I saw Lando going for a one-stop, I knew I was going to have to overtake on track, which is much easier said than done around here." Looking at his late passing attempt, he said: "I think I needed to be at least a couple of tenths closer which was going to take a mistake from Lando to achieve that. "I felt that was going to be my best chance. You never want to try and save it for the next lap, then it never comes, so I thought I would at least try." Piastri steadily cut into Norris' lead in the latter stages of the race but the British driver held on with old tyres to take the win. Piastri nearly collided with his teammate when he locked up a wheel while trying to pass on the second-to-last lap, earning a mild rebuke from his team. "Remember how we go racing, Oscar," came the warning from his race engineer, Tom Stallard. Norris held on to have the last word in their title fight as F1 heads into a four-week break. "Good racing. Good strategy. Good call," was how Norris summed it up on the radio. For the dominant McLaren drivers, it was their seventh 1-2 finish on the season and the team's 11th victory in 14 races in 2025. George Russell took third for Mercedes after fighting his way past Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in a contest that earned Leclerc a time penalty for nearly colliding with Russell. Defending champion Max Verstappen was only ninth. He stays third in the standings, but drops to 97 points behind Piastri. Leclerc started on pole position with hopes of landing Ferrari its first Grand Prix win of the year, but ended up fourth. "This is so incredibly frustrating. We've lost all competitiveness," he told the team over the radio. Leclerc dropped so far off the pace in his final stint that the two McLaren drivers and Russell questioned what happened to him as they chatted after the race. A day after calling himself "useless" and questioning whether Ferrari might need to replace him, Lewis Hamilton ended up 12th, exactly where he started. Hamilton said he's facing issues "in the background". "When you have a feeling, you have a feeling. There's a lot going on in the background that is not great," Hamilton said. But asked if he'd lost his love of racing, he said no. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: "Lewis is wearing his heart on his sleeve. "It was very raw what he said. He was hard on himself. We have seen it before when he felt he had not met his own expectations." Fernando Alonso took Aston Martin's best result of the season with fifth on a slow track that suited his car, with Gabriel Bortoleto a surprise sixth for Sauber and Lance Stroll seventh in the other Aston Martin. The season resumes with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on August 31. With agencies
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The Wallabies have restored some national pride and avoided a dubious place in Australian sports history with a face-saving 22-12 third-Test win over the British and Irish Lions in Sydney. Joe Schmidt's side overcame miserable conditions, the absence of key forwards Alan Alaalatoa and Rob Valetini and first-choice halfback Jake Gordon as well as the loss of dazed flyhalf Tom Lynagh to record a spirited and spiteful victory at Accor Stadium. Much of Saturday night's match was played in torrential rain while lightning early in the second half forced a rare 38-minute stoppage as several hundred fans were forced to evacuate the stadium to take shelter. The Lions had been bidding to complete the first 3-0 series whitewash in Australia since 1904 after securing the trophy with a controversial 29-26 win in Melbourne last Saturday having won the Brisbane opener 27-19. 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Replacing the injured Harry Potter, Pietsch designed the First Nations jersey and did the jumper proud, also earning Australia a key first-half penalty by holding up Lions centre Bundee Aki. Despite being without Alaalatoa and Valetini, the Wallabies also enjoyed scrum dominance with recalled Taniela Tupou having a storming first half at the set piece. The match erupted in the 23rd minute when the Lions took exception to Will Skelton pushing hooker Dan Sheehan off the ball. Punches were thrown in several melees but it was Skelton, who'd been agitating all game, penalised for starting the scrap. The Lions, though, still couldn't manage to escape their own half as the Wallabies continued bustling the tourists into error. Lynagh slotted a 34th minute to edge the Wallabies to an 8-0 halftime lead before the flyhalf made way for Ben Donaldson after being forced off for a HIA. TV replays captured Sheehan taking out Lynagh at a ruck and the Irishman will likely come under scrutiny from match officials. While Lynagh's head knock was a blow, the Lions suffered a worse break losing skipper Maro Itoje, who failed a HIA midway through the first half. Lions winger Tommy Freeman also left the action shortly before halftime with blood streaming down his face. Further compounding the tourists' woes was lock James Ryan being stretchered off in the opening minutes of the second half after copping an accidental knee to the head from Skelton. After going within less than a minute of levelling the series last week in Melbourne, the Wallabies played with passion and surely with a point to prove in front of 80,312 fans. Tensions boiled over on several occasions but the hosts refused to take a backward step. A 50-metre runaway try to winger Max Jorgensen in the 55th minute extended Australia's lead to 15 points, before the Lions replied through replacement forward Jac Morgan to revive their fortunes. But despite a last-second try to Will Stuart, there was no coming back for the Lions when reserve half Tate McDermott reached out to score with 10 minutes left on the clock. Big men Skelton, Tupou and lineout-stealing lock Nick Frost were enormous for the Wallabies and halfback Nic White, playing his last Test, getting under the skin of the Lions all night. The Wallabies have restored some national pride and avoided a dubious place in Australian sports history with a face-saving 22-12 third-Test win over the British and Irish Lions in Sydney. Joe Schmidt's side overcame miserable conditions, the absence of key forwards Alan Alaalatoa and Rob Valetini and first-choice halfback Jake Gordon as well as the loss of dazed flyhalf Tom Lynagh to record a spirited and spiteful victory at Accor Stadium. Much of Saturday night's match was played in torrential rain while lightning early in the second half forced a rare 38-minute stoppage as several hundred fans were forced to evacuate the stadium to take shelter. The Lions had been bidding to complete the first 3-0 series whitewash in Australia since 1904 after securing the trophy with a controversial 29-26 win in Melbourne last Saturday having won the Brisbane opener 27-19. Instead the Wallabies out-played and out-enthused the series winners from the get-go to make a mockery of Andy Farrell's side's dream to be known as the greatest Lions team of all time. In a match that had everything, including four pitch invaders during the delay, the Wallabies had all the answers: grunt up front, tenacious defence and the composure to close out the contest having blown an 18-point lead in the second Test. "So proud," said triumphant skipper Harry Wilson. "Obviously it was a disappointing week this week after such a tough loss. To bounce back the way we did, to play an 80-minute performance, I'm so proud of everyone. We just wanted this game so badly. Whatever we had to do, we had to do. "To get the win was special." The Wallabies enjoyed the early running and claimed a deserved 5-0 lead when Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii skipped and drew in two defenders to put winger Dylan Pietsch over in the left corner on seven minutes. Replacing the injured Harry Potter, Pietsch designed the First Nations jersey and did the jumper proud, also earning Australia a key first-half penalty by holding up Lions centre Bundee Aki. Despite being without Alaalatoa and Valetini, the Wallabies also enjoyed scrum dominance with recalled Taniela Tupou having a storming first half at the set piece. The match erupted in the 23rd minute when the Lions took exception to Will Skelton pushing hooker Dan Sheehan off the ball. Punches were thrown in several melees but it was Skelton, who'd been agitating all game, penalised for starting the scrap. The Lions, though, still couldn't manage to escape their own half as the Wallabies continued bustling the tourists into error. Lynagh slotted a 34th minute to edge the Wallabies to an 8-0 halftime lead before the flyhalf made way for Ben Donaldson after being forced off for a HIA. TV replays captured Sheehan taking out Lynagh at a ruck and the Irishman will likely come under scrutiny from match officials. While Lynagh's head knock was a blow, the Lions suffered a worse break losing skipper Maro Itoje, who failed a HIA midway through the first half. Lions winger Tommy Freeman also left the action shortly before halftime with blood streaming down his face. Further compounding the tourists' woes was lock James Ryan being stretchered off in the opening minutes of the second half after copping an accidental knee to the head from Skelton. After going within less than a minute of levelling the series last week in Melbourne, the Wallabies played with passion and surely with a point to prove in front of 80,312 fans. Tensions boiled over on several occasions but the hosts refused to take a backward step. A 50-metre runaway try to winger Max Jorgensen in the 55th minute extended Australia's lead to 15 points, before the Lions replied through replacement forward Jac Morgan to revive their fortunes. But despite a last-second try to Will Stuart, there was no coming back for the Lions when reserve half Tate McDermott reached out to score with 10 minutes left on the clock. Big men Skelton, Tupou and lineout-stealing lock Nick Frost were enormous for the Wallabies and halfback Nic White, playing his last Test, getting under the skin of the Lions all night. The Wallabies have restored some national pride and avoided a dubious place in Australian sports history with a face-saving 22-12 third-Test win over the British and Irish Lions in Sydney. Joe Schmidt's side overcame miserable conditions, the absence of key forwards Alan Alaalatoa and Rob Valetini and first-choice halfback Jake Gordon as well as the loss of dazed flyhalf Tom Lynagh to record a spirited and spiteful victory at Accor Stadium. Much of Saturday night's match was played in torrential rain while lightning early in the second half forced a rare 38-minute stoppage as several hundred fans were forced to evacuate the stadium to take shelter. The Lions had been bidding to complete the first 3-0 series whitewash in Australia since 1904 after securing the trophy with a controversial 29-26 win in Melbourne last Saturday having won the Brisbane opener 27-19. Instead the Wallabies out-played and out-enthused the series winners from the get-go to make a mockery of Andy Farrell's side's dream to be known as the greatest Lions team of all time. In a match that had everything, including four pitch invaders during the delay, the Wallabies had all the answers: grunt up front, tenacious defence and the composure to close out the contest having blown an 18-point lead in the second Test. "So proud," said triumphant skipper Harry Wilson. "Obviously it was a disappointing week this week after such a tough loss. To bounce back the way we did, to play an 80-minute performance, I'm so proud of everyone. We just wanted this game so badly. Whatever we had to do, we had to do. "To get the win was special." The Wallabies enjoyed the early running and claimed a deserved 5-0 lead when Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii skipped and drew in two defenders to put winger Dylan Pietsch over in the left corner on seven minutes. Replacing the injured Harry Potter, Pietsch designed the First Nations jersey and did the jumper proud, also earning Australia a key first-half penalty by holding up Lions centre Bundee Aki. Despite being without Alaalatoa and Valetini, the Wallabies also enjoyed scrum dominance with recalled Taniela Tupou having a storming first half at the set piece. The match erupted in the 23rd minute when the Lions took exception to Will Skelton pushing hooker Dan Sheehan off the ball. Punches were thrown in several melees but it was Skelton, who'd been agitating all game, penalised for starting the scrap. The Lions, though, still couldn't manage to escape their own half as the Wallabies continued bustling the tourists into error. Lynagh slotted a 34th minute to edge the Wallabies to an 8-0 halftime lead before the flyhalf made way for Ben Donaldson after being forced off for a HIA. TV replays captured Sheehan taking out Lynagh at a ruck and the Irishman will likely come under scrutiny from match officials. While Lynagh's head knock was a blow, the Lions suffered a worse break losing skipper Maro Itoje, who failed a HIA midway through the first half. Lions winger Tommy Freeman also left the action shortly before halftime with blood streaming down his face. Further compounding the tourists' woes was lock James Ryan being stretchered off in the opening minutes of the second half after copping an accidental knee to the head from Skelton. After going within less than a minute of levelling the series last week in Melbourne, the Wallabies played with passion and surely with a point to prove in front of 80,312 fans. Tensions boiled over on several occasions but the hosts refused to take a backward step. A 50-metre runaway try to winger Max Jorgensen in the 55th minute extended Australia's lead to 15 points, before the Lions replied through replacement forward Jac Morgan to revive their fortunes. But despite a last-second try to Will Stuart, there was no coming back for the Lions when reserve half Tate McDermott reached out to score with 10 minutes left on the clock. Big men Skelton, Tupou and lineout-stealing lock Nick Frost were enormous for the Wallabies and halfback Nic White, playing his last Test, getting under the skin of the Lions all night.
