The British & Irish Lions stuttered to an unconvincing 21-10 victory over a dogged New South Wales Waratahs facet on Saturday, taking a step backwards with an error-prone efficiency on the third leg of their tour of Australia.
Centre Huw Jones crossed twice within the first half and Alex Mitchell added one other strive early within the second however the Lions have been held scoreless for the ultimate 26 minutes of a contest coach Andy Farrell will shortly need to overlook.
“It was a bit scrappy however we obtained there in the long run, a lot nonetheless to work on,” Mitchell mentioned.
“Just a few issues clicked however a number of issues have been off.”
The Waratahs, roared on by nearly all of a crowd of 40,568, scored tries by Darby Lancaster and Ethan Dobbins and trailed by solely 4 factors early within the second half.
The Tremendous Rugby facet confirmed the Wallabies the way in which for the three-test collection in late July and August with an uncompromising physicality all around the park that knocked the Lions off their stride.
“Tremendous proud, tremendous proud,” mentioned Waratahs skipper Hugh Sinclair.
“We confirmed up, it was scrappy however the Lions is not going to have been happy with that.”
The Lions have been on the lookout for one other step up after a 52-12 win over Queensland Reds on Wednesday and opening their account with a 54-7 victory over Western Power.
It appeared on the playing cards after they received a penalty off the primary scrum and Jones minimize by the defence for the primary rating underneath the posts within the twelfth minute.
The Waratahs have been in no temper to lie down, nevertheless, they usually laid siege to the Lions line approaching the half-hour mark with Charlie Gamble combating his method over to the touch down solely to have the rating referred to as again for obstruction.
The Lions went again up the opposite finish for Jones to attain his second strive by barging by tacklers from shut vary within the thirty third minute, however the Waratahs responded nearly instantly.
Flanker Rob Leota charged down the blindside and exchanged passes with Lancaster, who raced in direction of the road and took a sort out earlier than getting again as much as slap the ball down for a strive.
Fin Smith’s two profitable conversions meant the Lions have been 14-5 up on the break however the Waratahs minimize the deficit additional inside two minutes of the restart when hooker Ethan Dobbins scored the house facet’s second strive from a rolling maul.
Farrell went to his bench after 10 minutes of the second half and the Lions quickly scored their third strive courtesy of a neat dummy off the again of a maul from Mitchell.
Substitute prop Ellis Genge obtained over the road 5 minutes later after a rampaging run however he bounced the ball on the bottom earlier than grounding it.
The errors continued and killed any fluency within the Lions assault, whereas Gamble and Leota have been excellent in main the Waratahs pack within the scrap for each little bit of possession.
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