Lions 36-24 Brumbies: 5 Talking Points as Blair Kinghorn suffers injury in Canberra

The first half started off in favour of the hosts, who looked up for the battle and hungrier than the Lions for large portions of the first period. Tuaina Taii Tualima was the first to cross the whitewash for the Brumbies, taking only four minutes to power over following multiple phases of physical play.

Even though the Lions ended the first period with three tries scored and one disallowed, they struggled to properly get going and it was a similar first half to the other games on the tour, in the sense that the first half produced a lot of mistakes for the visitors and the hosts disrupted them. For all of their issues, they went into the break with a nine-point lead after substitute Marcus Smith crossed the try line right at the end of the half.

It wouldn't take long for Smith to get involved again in the second half, with his grubber kick setting up Garry Ringrose after the Irishman sold the Brumbies defence with a lovely dummy to give it to Smith originally. The Lions looked as if they may run away as they have done in their other games, but Hudson Creighton pegged them back again after they won a scrum on the try line for a Jamison Gibson-Park knock on in his own goal area.

Finn Russell taking the points extended the lead and a last-gasp Ollie Chessum try being ruled out by TMO meant that the score stayed at 36-24 in favour of the tourists.

Tries: 5 - Ollie Chessum (15'), James Lowe (29'), Marcus Smith (40'), Garry Ringrose (47'), Josh van der Flier (68')

Conversions: 4 Finn Russell (30', 40', 48', 68')

Penalty: 1 Finn Russell (62')

STARTING XV: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 James Lowe, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park; 1 Ellis Genge, 2 Dan Sheehan, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 Joe McCarthy, 6 Ollie Chessum, 7 Tom Curry, 8 Jack Conan

Replacements: 16 Ronan Kelleher, 17 Andrew Porter, 18 Will Stuart, 19 Josh Van der Flier, 20 Henry Pollock, 21 Alex Mitchell, 22 Marcus Smith, 23 Mack Hansen

Tries: 4 - Tuaina Taii Tualima (4'), Corey Toole (37'), Hudson Creighton (51'), Liam Bowron (75')

Conversions: 2 - Ryan Lonergan (52'), Jack Debreczeni (76')

STARTING XV: 15 Andy Muirhead, 14 Ben O'Donnell, 13 Ollie Sapsford, 12 David Feliuai, 11 Corey Toole, 10 Declan Meredith, 9 Ryan Lonergan (c); 1 Lington Leli, 2 Lachlan Lonergan, 3 Rhys van Nek, 4 Lachlan Shaw, 5 Cadeyrn Neville, 6 Tom Hooper, 7 Rory Scott, 8 Tuaina Taii Tualima.

Replacements: 16 Liam Bowron, 17 Cameron Orr, 18 Feao Fotuaika, 19 Lachlan Hooper, 20 Luke Reimer, 21 Harrison Goddard, 22 Jack Debreczeni, 23 Hudson Creighton.

Toulouse fullback Kinghorn was forced to come off after only 25 minutes after nursing a knock for most of the game following a nasty looking landing early on that caused him plenty of discomfort for the rest of his spell on the pitch.

He punched the ground after the incident and looked dejected after coming off, leading to many believing that it could be a serious injury. Lions coach John Dalziel described the substitution as "precautionary" so it will just be a waiting game to see whether he has to withdraw from the tour.

With Elliot Daly already having to withdraw from the tour and not being replaced by a fullback, if Kinghorn's injury proves to be serious then it could be considered as being a little bit of a positional crisis at 15.

Marcus Smith came on for him but he is not a natural fullback, leaving Hugo Keenan as the only out-and-out player left in the position. There are plenty of players waiting in the wings who could do come in and do a job if it proves to be serious, but it does make you question whether Farrell's selection of Owen Farrell for Daly was the correct call.

Andy Farrell said on the injury, "Somebody landed on his knee and he felt a little bit of something. He's walking around etc so hopefully it's not too serious."

The Lions have now started slowly for all four of their games so far, which is a big worry with the first Test looming large. Brumbies took the lead in this game and the first half as a whole was a pretty dull affair from a Lions perspective, aside from a few moments.

The handling and decision-making errors persisted early on and now it is starting to really look like a worrying trend in their fifth game. Andy Farrell's side have been given a lot of leeway so far for mistakes early on in games but now it is getting slightly out of hand. For large portions of the first half, there was a lack of confidence in every department and no real physical dominance from the tourists.

James Lowe's missed try in the corner after some great defending by Andy Muirhead summed up the half. Lowe looked to have an easy try but didn't back himself, hesitated at the final moment and ended with the ball being held up.

They did end up growing into the game and got better as the minutes ticked on, with Lowe's try just before the half-hour mark showing flashes of what the Lions are capable of and Marcus Smith's score right on the break giving them a healthy nine-point lead before half time. Overall though, they need to step up their intensity and quality from the off otherwise they risk putting themselves in a tough place against the Wallabies.

Jamison Gibson-Park described the game as being, "A little bit of a patchy performance" and said that there was a, "Funny feeling in camp" because the team hoped to execute things better than they did.

Dan Sheehan has long been considered the frontrunner to start the first test at hooker and this game has all but confirmed that. The Ireland No.2 brings a level of dynamism comparable to a back row and was all over the pitch in this game.

In possession, he can shift over to the wide areas whilst away from the ball he is always looking for work and trying to make things happen. He is unlikely to play on Saturday so this game will be his last before playing against the Wallabies.

Statistically, he made nine carries and made 40 metres, whilst also having a 100% tackle success rate from 11 and was perfect in his lineout throws. A very impressive performance and one which pretty much guarantees a Test berth.

One of the key problems that the Lions had was at the breakdown. there seemed to be little cohesion and plenty of seemingly needless penalties were given away across the 80 minutes. One issue that kept arising was players going past the breakdown because they were expecting an offload, meaning that they were offside and unable to help.

There generally just seemed to be a lack of numbers from a Lions perspective in this area of the game. Given that this is the fifth game now, issues like that arising are a bit of a worry and will need to be swiftly ironed out by Farrell and his coaching staff.

This lineup looked a lot like what the Test one is expected to and most won't play in the final game before the first Test, so cohesion is massive at this stage. Being more cohesive could prove difficult, with Gibson-Park stating that, "We don't get a lot of time on the training pitch, so a lot of it is done in the meeting room."

Speaking about the issues at the breakdown, Farrell said, "I suppose it's been fiercely contested over the last couple of weeks. The Brumbies, rightly so, thought there was a theme there from last week. We've just got to make sure that we do our job properly."

Andy Farrell has now tried out various partnerships in the centre, mixing and matching the Scotland and Ireland players to varied success. Huw Jones and Sione Tuipulotu have been favoured to start the first Test, but after this performance Garry Ringrose is right in contention to break up 'Huwipulotu'.

He scored his first try on the score after latching onto a Marcus Smith grubber kick to finish off a one-two with the Harlequin. That try was largely down to him in the buildup, as Ringrose threw a brilliant dummy to beat a defender and pass to Smith originally.

His decision-making was top notch and he was very good as a ball-carrier. Farrell's selection headache now looks to be at 12, with fellow Ireland player Bundee Aki looking the most likely to play against the Wallabies.