Tuesday evening and the British & Irish Lions had an easy run out against the Combined Country. You could not fault the home side for effort but with part timers amongst the fringe Super players and only a couple of training sessions to get to know each other they were always on the back foot. The Lions racked up thirty-eight points in the first half but got pegged back a bit in the second the home side were a little unlucky a couple of times when pressing the Lions line but the visitors must be happy to have kept a clean sheet.
On the player watch front two guys stood out and they were Hogg and Maitland. Roberts in the centre did not have one of his better days and heaslip did not seem to get into space as he did in his last outing. Tipuric and O’Brien did their cause no harm and Ian Evans had another solid performance. The solid platform up front meant that Conor Murray had an easy run out and Stuart Hogg playing flat released the big runners.
The downside of the occasion was the number of unforced errors, yes there was dew on the ground so the ball was wet, but no excuse for some of the simple errors. Line-out missfired as well so things to work on. Expect s stiffer test against the Waratahs on Saturday 15 June with Kick-off at 10:30 UK time, in the Allianz Stadium Sydney.
So from the game today the final score was: Combined Country 0-64 B&I Lions
Scorers
Combined Country 0
Lions
Tries: Cuthbert, Murray, Hogg, North (2), Hibbard, O’Driscoll, Halfpenny, O’Brien, Davies
Conversions: Hogg (4), Halfpenny (3)
Teams
Combined Country: Nathan Trist, Alex Gibbon, Lewie Catt, Tareta-Junior Siakisini, Tom Cox, Angus Roberts, Michael Snowden; Haydn Hirsimaki, Josh Mann-Rae, Tim Metcher, Phoenix Battye, Blake Enever, Richard Stanford, Jarrad Butler, Tim Davidson (C).
Replacements: Tom Kearney (for Mann-Rae, 61), Dylan Evans (for Hirsimaki, 53), Rikki Abraham (for Metcher, 68), Rory Arnold (for Battye, 72), Trent Dyer (for Battye, 50), Adam McCormack (for Snowden, 72), Shaun McCarthy (for Cox, 57), Dale Ah Wang (for Catt, 62).
Lions: Sean Maitland, Alex Cuthbert, Brian O’Driscoll (C), Jamie Roberts, George North, Stuart Hogg, Conor Murray; Alex Corbisiero, Richard Hibbard, Dan Cole, Richie Gray, Ian Evans, Sean O’Brien, Justin Tipuric, Jamie Heaslip.
Replacements: Rory Best (for Hibbard, 50), Ryan Grant (for Corbisiero, 50), Matt Stevens (for Cole, 50), Alun Wyn Jones (for Gray, 41), Toby Faletau (for Heaslip, 54), Mike Phillips (for Murray, 70), Jonathan Davies (for Roberts, 55), Leigh Halfpenny (for North, 41).
Referee: Steve Walsh (ARU)
Attendance: 20,071
Fixtures
Sat 15 June: NSW Waratahs, Sydney
Tue 18 June: ACT Brumbies, Canberra
Sat 22 June: Australia, First Test, Brisbane
Tue 25 June: Melbourne Rebels, Melbourne
Sat 29 June: Australia, Second Test, Melbourne
Sat 6 July: Australia, Third Test, Sydney