MELBOURNE :The British & Irish Lions were rocked by the underdog spirit of the First Nations & Pasifika XV (FNP) but held on grimly to claim an unconvincing 24-19 win on Tuesday.
Centre Jamie Osborne scored a try in each half, and Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe also crossed for the Lions who remain unbeaten on their Australian tour despite producing a largely ragged display at Melbourne’s Docklands Stadium.
It was full credit to the FNP team, who gave Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies a lesson in ferocity at the breakdown and scored tries from Tristan Reilly, Seru Uru and Rob Leota, the last allowing them to creep within five points with less than 10 minutes left.
Although the Lions notched their seventh win in succession in Australia, coach Andy Farrell may have more headaches than just selection for Saturday’s second test against the Wallabies at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where they will bid to seal the series.
The claims of his son Owen Farrell for a test jersey were unharmed, though, the former England captain leading from the front as skipper on Tuesday.
“Probably wasn’t our best performance, but massive, massive credit’s got to go to the First Nations and Pasifika boys, thought they came after us tonight,” said Owen Farrell.
“They got off the line really well, they caused us some trouble … I’m thankful we got the job done in the end.”
Farrell was right in the thick of it, charging in to shove Reilly after the hosts’ winger hammered into Graham with a try-saving tackle that earned him a yellow card in the fifth minute.
Moments later, Farrell set up the Lions’ first try with a neat chip over the First Nations’ line that Osborne collected and planted down.
GRAHAM TRY
Farrell had a hand in the second for Scottish winger Graham who streamed through a paddock of space.
FNP were 14-0 down after 11 minutes but Reilly returned to the field to intercept a poor Fin Smith pass near the Lions’ 22 and jog over for the easiest of tries.
Improbably, FNP wiped out the lead with a converted try to Uru, who burrowed over in the 23rd minute.
Lions lock James Ryan was yellow-carded in the same play for slowing the ball down at the ruck.
Undermanned, the tourists shut out FNPZ for the rest of the half but were lucky to avoid conceding a third try after another interception.
Home fans hoping for an upset were buoyant in the crowd of 30,420 but Osborne silenced them soon after the restart, with flyhalf Smith making up for errant passing with a long ball that set up the centre’s second try.
Still the errors flowed, with forward passes and knock-ons denying the Lions two certain tries before Van der Merwe latched onto a Farrell pass to cross in the corner.
Still FNP responded, rumbling the ball to the tryline before Melbourne boy and former Wallaby Leota barged through a crack to trim the deficit to five points in the 71st minute.
The drums were beating among the Pacific Islanders in the terraces but the Lions did well to lock down and ensure they head into the second Wallabies test with winning form.
“Not many people gave us a chance,” said FNP’s man-of-the-match Charlie Gamble.
“We showed that we deserve to be out there, and we played very hard for each other.”
