Lions defeat Reds, but these Talking Points show it wasn’t as easy as it looked

It was the same story as last Saturday with the Lions starting very slowly, something that against Australia on July 19th cannot be happening. They don’t want to be called a second 40 team- which at the moment they are- as the opening 40 minutes were extremely worrying in Brisbane.

Tries: Tommy Freeman (19’, 59’), Andrew Porter (28’), Duhan van der Merwe (35’), Maro Itoje (44’), Jac Morgan (56’), Huw Jones (65’), Gary Ringrose (80+4)

Conversions: Finn Russell (20’, 29’, 36’, 45’), Fin Smith (56’, 60’)

British and Irish Lions lineup: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park; 1 Andrew Porter, 2 Rónan Kelleher, 3 Will Stuart, 4 Maro Itoje (captain), 5 Ollie Chessum, 6 Tom Curry, 7 Jac Morgan, 8 Jack Conan.

Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 Finlay Bealham, 19 James Ryan, 20 Ben Earl, 21 Alex Mitchell, 22 Fin Smith, 23 Garry Ringrose.

Tries: Jeffery Toomaga-Allen (8’), Josh Flook (25’)

Conversions: Harry McLaughlin-Phillips (9’)

Queensland Reds lineup: 15 Jock Campbell (captain), 14 Lachie Anderson, 13 Josh Flook, 12 Hunter Paisami, 11 Tim Ryan, 10 Harry McLaughlin-Phillips, 9 Kalani Thomas; 1 Aidan Ross, 2 Matt Faessler, 3 Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, 4 Josh Canham, 5 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 6 Seru Uru, 7 John Bryant, 8 Joe Brial.

Replacements: 16 Josh Nasser, 17 George Blake, 18 Sef Fa’agase, 19 Ryan Smith, 20 Angus Blyth, 21 Connor Vest, 22 Louis Werchon, 23 Isaac Henry.

Despite being a richly enthralling contest for the full duration, it must be said that there is still a huge amount to improve on for the Lions.

Early in the contest handling errors were becoming apparent, too many too often. So it was no surprise that after 10-minutes, Farrell’s men’s were down. Tight-head Jeffery Toomaga-Allen crossed over after the touring side missed a number of tackles.

They did cross the whitewash prior to the 20-minute mark as after quickly spreading the ball out wide, Tommy Freeman crossed. However, they found themselves behind again minutes later as Josh Flook crossed for the hosts’ second.

Prior to the interval, the Lions did start getting the upper hand in the fixture as both Andrew Porter and Duhan van der Merwe scored. Which saw the tourists go in at the break only nine points up.

And after probably another fiery halftime team talk by Farrell, the Lions started the second-half quickly. Captain, Maro Itoje crossed early whilst Jac Morgan powered over before the hour mark.

In the closing exchanges Freeman claimed his brace and Huw Jones brilliantly scored before Gary Ringrose crossed with the clock in the red for the Lions to cross the half century mark again in Australia.

Despite scoring on the 36-minute mark, it felt like the 30-year-old was playing his way out of Test contention. The Reds were kicking the ball behind him which he couldn’t cope with, fumbling possession. He tried to catch a cross field kick one handed, which nearly ended in another Reds try.

Despite handing off the player once the ball was recovered, it was simply not good enough from the Scotsman. But it happened again, this time instead of a cross field kick, it was a brilliantly time grubber kick towards the winger, who never looked likely to regather. This led to Flook beating him and crossing for the hosts’ second.

There’s still loads for Farrell and his back room staff to work on, but there were some very noticeable stand out performances from a side who started really firing in the second half.

Now just the only Welsh representative in the Lions squad, Jac Morgan and his counterpart in the back row Tom Curry work was going under the radar. Especially Morgan who was a nuisance around the breakdown and made some brilliant offloads. His try on 56 minutes came from him running a tremendous line to power over and it’ll take some effort to knock the Welshmen off a Test starting position.

The other standout, Jamison Gibson-Park who was making his debut as a Lion. He was great value this evening at scrum half, despite being sidelined with a glute injury at the start of the tour. His great foot-work created Itoje’s try, and looked incredibly sharp across the park.

Speaking to Sky Sports captain Maro Itoje said: “It was a good all round performance.

Head coach Farrell added: “It was a bit of everything, I do not think it was flowing, it was a little bit stop-start.

“Elliot [Daly] is pretty saw and we will get him an x-ray on his forearm so hopefully he is ok. Of course you have thoughts [on selection] but you have to be open-minded.

Just hours prior to kickoff in Brisbane, Hugo Keenan who was meant to be making his Lions debut, dropped out of the starting XV due to illness. He was replaced by Elliot Daly who played his third match of the tour.

Keenan’s dropout could impact head coach, Farrell’s plans for Saturday’s encounter with the New South Wales Waratahs, this is because Blair Kinghorn would’ve been in line to make his debut after not being involved in the Lions camp due to clinching Top 14 glory with Toulouse last weekend.

So the question is now, where will the Irishman’s chance come but one thing is for sure England’s Daly has been taking his opportunities, scoring a brace last weekend against Western Force but will be hoping his performance against the Reds was a one off.

At the moment he is still in pole position for a Test spot, despite going off with his left arm down by his side, and looked to be a in a little discomfort sat pitchside. Farrell will be hoping his versatile fullback isn’t going to have his tour cut short like Tomos Williams last Saturday.