The British and Irish Lions scored five tries in a momentum-building 36-24 win against ACT Brumbies on Wednesday.
With next Saturday marking the first Test of the highly-anticipated Qatar Airways British & Irish Lions Tour to Australia 2025, opportunities to stake a claim for a Test jersey are at a premium.
However, the Lions produced a promising performance and scored first-half tries through Ollie Chessum, James Lowe and replacement Marcus Smith – who came on for an injured Blair Kinghorn.
Garry Ringrose and Josh van der Flier added further scores after the break as the Lions pulled clear, while the goal-kicking of Finn Russell proved crucial.
The hosts, who beat the Lions in 2013, laid down an early marker. After Sheehan conceded a penalty at half-way, the Brumbies used it as a platform to launch an early attack.
After a kick to the corner and couple of further penalties, they blasted their way over the line from close range with Tualima dotting down.
The hosts won four turnovers in the first 15 minutes, underlining their intensity, but the Lions hit back with a bulldozing score of their own.
After a huge scrum, Bundee Aki charged up the middle and made plenty of metres, before Russell sucked in a defender and played Chessum in for a try in the corner.
That settled the visitors down and they were soon making plenty of metres. Dan Sheehan bounced off one defender and sprinted up the right touchline, before releasing Tommy Freeman, who was dragged down and earned a penalty from a scrambling Brumbies defence.
From there, the Lions went left, and Lowe thought he’d scored in the corner with a typically muscular finish but replays showed he was brilliantly held up by Andy Muirhead.
However, his name was soon on the try sheet. A fluent move including Russell, Aki, Sheehan and Ringrose ended with Lowe sliding over in the corner for his first try of the Tour.
There was some concern for the coaching staff, as full-back Kinghorn was forced off with a knee injury just prior to Lowe’s try, with Smith sent on in his place.
But the Brumbies were next to score, as Toole ran over in the left corner following a long, looping pass to cut the Lions lead to two points.
The Lions stretched that to nine on the brink of half time, as a brilliant Tom Curry offload released Marcus Smith and the replacement full-back sprinted in to score.
Like in the first half, the Brumbies started quicker after the break. A penalty just outside the Lions 22 set-up an attack but, after kicking to the corner, Maro Itoje brilliantly stole the resulting lineout.
The Lions then made the Brumbies pay. Ringrose threw a dummy and jinked his way through a gap, before finding Smith and the full-back then kicked a nice grubber kick for the outside centre to chase and dot down for an excellent try.
The Brumbies, however, were back in it within five minutes. A Toole chip in behind turned the Lions defence and, under pressure, Freeman got back and tossed up a pass to Jamison Gibson-Park, which went to ground behind the try line.
Freeman dotted it down but from the Brumbies’ five-metre scrum, Creighton went through a gap to score.
By this point, Andy Farrell had made several changes and introduced forwards Andrew Porter, Will Stuart and Josh van der Flier, and the latter was the next to go close to a try from a driving maul.
From a lineout five metres out, the Lions forwards set to work, and Van der Flier thought he grounded the ball following an almighty shove only the TMO to rule it out after viewing several replays.
A Russell penalty from in front of the posts extended the Lions lead by three, before Farrell introduced Mack Hansen into the game – the former Brumbies winger playing in front of family and friends as he returned to his home city.
Henry Pollock was also brought on in place of Joe McCarthy – with Chessum moving to the second-row – and he made an immediate impact by darting down the right touchline, holding players off for fun.
That break led to the fifth try. The Brumbies conceded a penalty, which Russell kicked to touch, and from the rolling maul, Van der Flier got the ball down to score.
The Brumbies hit back again with their second try of the second half, as Bowron eventually muscled his way over after an intense period of pressure on the line.
Chessum thought he had the final laugh when he dived over in the 80th minute but the Brumbies did brilliantly to hold him up.
