British & Irish Lions smash AUNZ Invitational side, but concept receives backing from co-captain and coach
Despite the British & Irish Lions’ demolition of the combined Australia-New Zealand side in Adelaide, the future Wallabies’ coach believes the concept is worth persevering with, and his co-captain has backed him up.
Future Wallabies coach Les Kiss said he’d like to see Australia and New Zealand field more combined teams despite their 48-0 loss to the British and the Irish Lions.
Brought together at short notice the AUNZ invitational team lacked the cohesion to challenge the tourists but Kiss said the concept was worth persevering with.
“Of course the scoreline can tell one story, but there are other stories within it that are important to recognise as well,” Kiss said.
“I think I’d have the complete backing of the guys here that that concept should be something that we continue to work on and make it work whenever we can.”
“Without a doubt there was some moments that were tough for us that we made tough on ourselves.”
New Zealand David Havili, the AUNZ co-captain, also endorsed the concept but admitted the Lions were too well organised for a makeshift .
“They’re just good at doing their simple things done well,” he said.
“They put a lot of heat on the breakdown and we got a couple of carries over the game line and you stop the ball quite early and it’s tough for us to find seams or find weak shoulders.
“They were a quality side and you can see the cohesion that they’ve added over the last three weeks.
“Whenever the Lions come back to New Zealand, hopefully we can get the same concept and the Aussie boys can come over to New Zealand and do the same thing because it’s great to be able to get teams like this off the ground and it’s just been a great, enjoyable week and really refreshing for myself.”
Asked what advice he had for Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt ahead of next week’s first Test, Kiss said the Australians would need to be alert at every moment.
“I think the learning will be over a few games,” he said.
“I dare say, I reckon these guys (the AUNZ team) would love a second week and another game of some type.
“There are things that we would grow and improve but if there’s one big thing, if you give them easy moments, you’ve got to be switched on always.
“They just seem to have a sense of being able to sniff a moment and make you pay for it straight away.
“You’ve just got to fight for those little scraps, those moments, but not give easy access into the situations where they can build momentum.
“You have to be switched on always and it’s something that they probably missed a little bit in that first game against Argentina but you can see each game on game they just they’re just ready for every moment just now and when they take those moments they’re bloody clinical you know they do finish them off there it’s impressive.”
Lions boast some roar, but still lack a killer instinct
- Julian Linden
As a statement of intent ahead of next week’s opening Test against the Wallabies, the British & Irish Lions’ 48-0 demolition job of the Australia-New Zealand Invitational side at Adelaide Oval, had a little touch of meow along with the mighty roar.
There was plenty to admire from the tourists as they devoured an AUNZ combination that contained 17 Test players, including a handful of Aussies who only just missed out on making the Wallabies’ squad for the upcoming Test series.
But for a team that keeps bragging about being the ‘best of the best’, the Lions lacked the killer instinct to go on with the job against a makeshift team whose short build-up included a bonding session over beers at the pub.
For Joe Schmidt and his underdog Wallabies, their best hope of beating the Lions lies in the hope that they haven’t been able to produce a full 80-minute performance since arriving in Australia.
But the worry for the Wallabies is that might yet be still to come because there’s been enough hints to suggest a bigger and better showing is not that far away.
“We did everything we set out before the game,” the Lions’ captain Tadhg Beirne said.
“The most pleasing thing was keeping them to zero, that’s huge for our defence and gives us massive confidence boost going into next week.”
“Every opportunity to wear this jersey is an honour because you’ve got big shoes to fill every time you put it on.”
The Lions may not have bared all their teeth yet, but Andy Farrell’s men in red have still won each of their five warm-up matches without ever being threatened.
Putting aside their own differences, the Aussie-Kiwi combination that took them in Adelaide gave it a good crack but their lack of time together was telling.
“The Lions are a tough side and you can see why they are the best in the world for a reason,” said co-captain David Havili said.
“I love the way the Aussie boys and the Kiwi boys gelled this week. We didn’t get the performance but we can be proud of what we did.”
Queensland lock Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, one of the unluckiest players not to get picked by Schmidt, had a powerful game, accidentally knocking out Lions’ hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie on one of his destructive runs.
Five-eighth Tane Edmed also had a solid game, and came away looking better than James O’Connor, whose first Wallabies training session ended with him sporting a black eye and a cut face.
But the AUNZ team just couldn’t breach the Lions’ defence, which has kept the opposition scoreless in the second half in three of their five matches.
The Lions’ attack has been a mixed bag but they did manage their best start of the tour so far, racing to three first half tries to lead 17-0 after just 20 minutes.
Wing Duhan van der Merwe crossed twice, the first off a quick lineout from Hugo Keenan, then his second after combining with Aussie-Born Mack Hansen.
Scottish halfback Ben White darted through a gap to score under the sticks before the Lions took their foot off the gas.
They finally got going again in the second half when Owen Farrell, the coaches’ son, came on after getting a late call up to the squad, piling on five tries after the restart from Melbourne-born Sione Tuipulotu, Scott Cummings, Ronan Kelleher, Henry Pollock and van der Merwe, who complete a hat trick.
The biggest concern for the Lions was confirmation Irish outside centre Garry Ringrose - who would have been marking Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii - has been ruled out of the series opener in Brisbane after failing a concussion test following a head knock he sustained against the Brumbies.
“It is a concussion from last week, (there were) lingering signs of concussion, he had a headache, and unfortunately he failed that. It is very sad for Garry,” Farrell told Sky Sports.
“He’ll be back within the rest of the series very shortly but that is the way the game goes. We will see what the fall-out is and make some decisions on the back of that.”
Cowan-Dickie is also in serious doubt for the first Test with Farrell saying an extra hooker would likely be added to the squad.
“He is in good spirits and is back to his normal self, it looked like a concussion so we will have to see what happens after that. We will wait to see what the medics say,” he said.
On the team’s performance, Farrell said: “When you play these types of games and the types of personnel you can face, anything can happen but I thought we played nice, controlled rugby and we didn’t let them in the game.
“We stayed at it, it was never going to be perfect, and kept going as a team, that’s the main thing. There were some great individual performances but we gelled well as a team.”
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