The British and Irish Lions will be looking to seal the series with a game to spare when they take on the Wallabies at the MCG this Saturday.
Australia v British and Irish Lions | Saturday 26 July | Melbourne Cricket Ground
To Win (80 Mins)
Australia | Draw | Lions
Handicap
Australia | Lions
While there are some positives for the Wallabies following their defeat in the opening Test, there are a lot of negatives as well with their psychology rightly called into question after Harry Wilson booted the ball out in the last play of the game despite his side trailing by eight points.
The Lions have less to work on but Andy Farell will be slightly unsatisfied with his side’s showing in the first Test, particularly the amount of opportunities they failed to capitalize on. Huw Jones was guilty of this as he failed to pop a ball up to Jamison Gibson-Park when the Lions were centimetres out from the tryline. Had they gone over there, the scoreline could well have blown out before half-time.
Another area for the Lions to improve upon is how they finish off this game and how impactful their subs are with their bench making little impact last weekend as they conceded two tries in the final quarter of the game while only adding a penalty to their tally.
Looking at the team news for this one, and as expected, both sides have made changes with Will Skelton, Rob Valteni and David Porecki coming into the Wallabies starting pack. The Lions seem to have addressed their lack of firepower from the bench with Jac Morgan, Blair Kinghorn and Owen Farrell all coming onto the pine while Bundee Aki, Ollie Chessum and Adrew Porter all get starts.
Verdict: Australia (+)
The hosts managed to stay inside the handicap in the opener and I reckon they’ll do so again here. While my main play will be the Aussies on the plus, I’ll also be having a crack on a couple of the under points markets via the live In-Play platform as there’s a bit of rain scheduled for Saturday.
