Skipper Maro Itoje celebrated his return with a try as the British & Irish Lions pulled away in the second half to beat the Queensland Reds 52-12 in their second tour match in Australia on Wednesday.
Tommy Freeman grabbed two tries and Andrew Porter, Duhan van der Merwe, Jac Morgan, Huw Jones and Gary Ringrose all also crossed as the Lions disappointed those in the 46,435 crowd at Brisbane’s Lang Park who were hoping for an upset.
Itoje was rested for the match against the Western Force last weekend, leading to some conjecture that his test place was under threat, but he made a mockery of the idea with a statement performance in the second row.
“I guess as a team, we just wanted to be better today, we wanted to take a step forward,” Itoje said.
“And as always, it was rugby. It wasn’t perfect but I think, generally speaking, it was a step in the right direction.”
Jeffery Toomaga-Allen and Josh Flook had given the local fans hope of an upset with tries in the first 26 minutes before the tourists, who made nine handling errors in the first half, hit their formidable stride.
Like the Force in Perth, the Reds started strongly and a multi-phase move triggered by a Hunter Paisami line break in midfield led to former All Blacks prop Toomaga-Allen going over under the posts.
Bundee Aki was adjudged held up from a rolling maul in the 12th minute but the Lions made no mistake from their next attacking lineout, moving the ball quickly along the backline for winger Freeman to cross.
The Reds went ahead in the 26th minute when scrumhalf Kalani Thomas angled a grubber behind the Lions defence and centre Josh Flook took the ball at full pace to put the home side 12-7 ahead.
The Lions took a more direct route to regain the lead, the forwards battering down the front door from a quickly taken tap penalty with prop Andrew Porter getting the ball down.
AKI BENDS THE LINE
The final try of the opening half was equally simple with Finn Russell shifting the ball left through quick hands and Van der Merwe using his size to go over in the corner and give the tourists a 21-12 lead at the break.
Aki bent the line in familiar fashion soon after the restart and Itoje went over under the posts after a flurry of offloads, flyhalf Russell adding his fourth conversion to extend the lead to 28-12 before making way for Fin Smith.
The Reds were still going through phases in attack but finding it difficult to make any headway through the Lions defence, a problem not shared by their opponents.
Flanker Morgan ran a neat line to cross in the 59th minute, Freeman scored his second try on the hour mark and centre Huw Jones plucked a Tim Ryan chip out of the air and raced away to score the team’s seventh.
Centre Gary Ringrose, who had come on for the injured Elliot Daly, rounded out the scoring after the hooter with a try in the corner on the overlap.
“Sometimes you just come up against a better side and that was it tonight,” said Reds skipper Jock Campbell.
Daly, who looked to have injured his wrist, was in the team only after the original fullback Hugo Keenan withdrew just before kickoff because of illness.
The Lions play the New South Wales Waratahs, ACT Brumbies and an invitational Australia-New Zealand XV over the next three weeks before the first test against the Wallabies in Brisbane on July 19.
