Key events
59 mins. Van Der Flier picks up from the ruck and gallops forty metres and his offload is snaffled by Donaldson so runs back another 5o metres to then lose it himself. Jones resets it and finds Hansen who blooters a massive kick clear. The game is increasingly becoming a pure banter effort.
57 mins. For the first time in a while the home side have some ball and they can do little but drop it on halfway which allows Huw Jones, freshly on the field to hack it on and chase all the way to the Force goal line. Stewart covers across to ground it.
TRY! Western Force 7 – 40 Lions (Joe McCarthy)
54 mins. Henry Pollock is back on and he decides it’s time to draw some more attention his way this time with a chip that he chases and regathers on the 22. He’s very close to driving over himself before the ball is recycled and moved left to the big Irish second row lurking out wide.
TRY! Western Force 7 – 33 Lions (Garry Ringrose)
51 mins. The rhythm of the attack out wide from the Lions is fully in the groove now as the draw and pass action smoothly moves the ball out to Hansen then back inside to Ringrose to open his tour account. Slick effort against a home defence that’s increasingly struggling to cope.
47 mins. Tomos Williams twinged his hamstring a bit in scoring and is replaced by Alex Mitchell. Here’s hoping it’s nothing serious.
TRY! Western Force 7 – 26 Lions (Tomos Williams)
46 mins. Will Harris spills the ball on the Lions 22 and on the advantage the visitors spring up the right side of the field with numerous pairs of hands exchanging passes. At the forefront are Williams and Lowe who trade the ball a couple of times before the scrum half dives for the corner to dot it down.
Fabulous try.
43 mins. A solid carry from Stewart and some dancing feet from Grealy has the Force on the front foot as again the Lions look lethargic in contact, but the pressure is relieved after the TMO spots a neck roll by Champion de Crepigny
42 mins. The Lions are having more problems with the restart than a used Fiat Panda, the latest one flies through Cummings’s hands and back toward Daly in the 22. The fullback covers it but the visitors are straight on the back foot completely unnecessarily.
Second Half!
Harford kicks high and deep
Tom Young has a question: “I’m wondering why the Force have decided to borrow Chelsea’s 1978 home kit replete with an avant garde 80s fabric shine? Is it helping the Lion’s slip from their grasp?”
Would you believe that the kit is designed by their winger, Dylan Pietsch? Whether you believe it or not it’s true.
But your final point masks a serious one because the ease the home side are getting metres over the gainline needs sorting and quick by the Lions. There is simply not enough energy in defence.
“Just had a fry here in Thurles, Tipperary. Very few pubs have the game on.” reports Gerry Keavney, “Anyway, I’m looking forward to combinations from today’s game. 9 & 10 & 12 and also how Daly works with the Ireland wingers. Not sold on Pollock at 8, but he’s going good so far.”
Jury is still out on the combinations, I would say, but this is a tricky game to cement something as it feels like a pre-season outing.
Pollock has been everywhere, in every possible way.
Half Time!
40 mins. Force tap the penalty and manage to get over the line, but the Lions do a good job in holding them up and that brings about the half time whistle.
YELLOW CARD! Henry Pollock (Lions)
39 mins. There’s more defending for the Lions to do near their own line and Pollock doesn’t release the tackler and is penalised. There was already a warning in place for all the earlier penalties and he’s off for 10 mins, thus endeth a very eventful half for the English lad.
38 mins. Some more restart mither from the Lions puts the Force back on the attack and up to the line, but they can’t hold the ball and Williams puts his foot through the ball for a relieving clearance.
There were some afters following the try as Champion de Crepigny took exception to Pollock giving it plenty in the Force player’s grill in the celebration. Pollock was taken to ground and a few more piled in, but it ended as soon as it began.
Very on-brand for the young Northampton man to cause a rammy, though.
TRY! Western Force 7 – 21 Lions (Elliot Daly)
35 mins. A penalty just outside the 22 is quickly tapped by Russell who catches the whole Force defence napping and runs up to the five metre line to find Daly to score.
Russell converts.
33 mins. Some lateral passing around halfway from the Lions springs to life as Russell pops a little chip over the top the Force defence that Hansen gathers and goes on the attack. Van Der Flier has a run but some great work by Harris in the tackle rips the ball loose and back into Force hands.
30 mins. There’s a break in play while Proctor receives a bit of treatment after a torso busting hit by Tuipulotu renders him prostrate. It was a legal hit, just a very big one.
28 mins. Daly carries the ball across the halfway line and finds Hansen to put a few more metres in. Russell calls for it and moves it left before the possesion is again lost allowing Donaldson to kick it clear.
25 mins. Another busy attack from the home side moves up to the 22, but the Lions manage to disrupt it, win the ball and send it away to touch. The Force come back at them but Proctor spills it forward in contact.
The precision, such as it was, has deserted both sides at the moment.
22 mins. The game settles for the first time into a period of kicking back and forth for a few minutes. This draws to a close when Lowe goes for a massive 50-22 with the outside of the left boot that is about 18 inches too long and finds touch on the full. Force will have a lineout back in the Lions half.
19 mins. The Lions are having some issues with restarts, prompting Will Greenwood on comms to posit that some amateur clubs can go a decade without winning a restart. Two things: I don’t know why that’s relevant, and it’s also blatantly untrue.
TRY! Western Force 7 – 14 Lions (Tomos Williams)
16 mins. Pollock appears again and this time holds onto the ball to first pop it to Van Der Flier then receive the offload back and race twenty metres into space to step into the 22. He’s held by Donaldson but manages to pass out of the tackle to find Williams who strolls over.
Russell converts.
14 mins. Henry Pollock appears in midfield but the pass from Williams is a little high and the ball is spilled forward. This give turnover possession to the home side and they are offloading aplenty up the right side of the field before they take a turn to fumble it.
Frenetic and without much shape, but it’s great fun this game so far.
11 mins. More Force ball in the red zone and the pace of their recycling is causing the Lions all sorts of bother as they are once again illegal at the ruck. Harford floats it to touch for another lineout, but in the next possession the home side cough up the ball and Williams gratefully boots it clear for a breather.
Discipline under pressure a serious concern for Andy Farrell.
9 mins. A solid lineout is won on the Lions 5 metre line by the Force and as the maul gathers intent the visitors are illegally changing binding all over the place and Ref O’Keefe pings them once more. The ball is back in the corner for another lineout.
7 mins. The issue that the Lions had out of the edges of their defence vs Argentina is present once more as Pietsch continues his great start by getting into some open space out wide. The scrambling visitors are then too keen at the breakdown and a penalty is awarded to the Force, which they decide to put into the corner.
TRY! Western Force 7 – 7 Lions (Dylan Pietsch)
4 mins. The home side are not too shellshocked by the opening barrage as the wing Pietsch dashes and yoinks the restart from under the noses of the Lions. It puts them on the attack and they show some good handling of their own to find White on the left to drive over through some Lions defensive traffic.
Conversion is added.
TRY! Western Force 0 – 7 Lions (Dan Sheehan)
2 mins. Force tidy up the kick-off and boot it back to the Lions who are straight away moving the ball through hands, Russell conducting. It goes left and then all the way back to the right where Lowe has swapped wings to flick a backhanded offload to Sheehan who crosses the whitewash to open the scoring.
Russell adds two
Kick-off!
Finn Russell kicks deep to get us started
Officials today
-
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
-
Assistant Referees: Paul Williams (New Zealand), James Doleman (New Zealand)
-
TMO (Television Match Official): Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)
The conditions are wonderful on this Perth evening as the lights are dimmed for the usual disco pyrotechnics to welcome the teams.
Andy Farrell has been speaking to Sky Sports:
“[We want] a little bit more cohesion. We take the good out of the game [against Argentina] as well and we looked dangerous at times but we made too many errors.
“This is a different side again so it will be about how we put or best foot forward when it counts and it counts tonight.
“If you are not excited and don’t have some nerves you’re probably in the wrong jersey. But the players are calm and hopefully come kick-off, they will be ready.”
It appears that Andy’s comments are now created by CoachChatGPT
“Sat by the sea in Madeira.” Ben Mason informs us, “Is it worth me bothering to watch the game on my phone, or am I just spoiling my holiday?”
Why would you watch it when you can read about it here, Ben?
It’s been hard to avoid the sniggering all week regarding the moniker of Western Force back-rower Nick Champion de Crespigny, which you have to admit is a cracker of a name and one that can really only exist in rugby union, sailing or a Jilly Cooper novel.
With Nick having a team-mate today called Darcy Swain, I’m wondering if this is the first time a team have fielded two players with names that sound like they could have been the hottest London society wedding of 1927?
Pre match discourse
Rob Kitson previews the match
And here are Ugo Monye’s thoughts
For a Lions follower, much of theses opening tour matches are all about gathering information and intelligence to inform the discussion of who will be in the Test squad. The cynical fan will point out that Andy Farrell likely picked his team in 2023 and is unlikely to budge much from that; but what are you looking forward to finding out today?
Let me know about this, or anything else on the email. I await your correspondence like the overworked Tadhg Beirne awaits a week off from playing rugby.
Teams
As is the wont and need of a Lions coach, Andy Farrell has made plenty of changes to the side from last week with only Tadhg Beirne and Sione Tuipulotu retaining their starting berths. Among many swaps, Finn Russell has his first tour start at stand-off and England youngling Henry Pollock starts the game at Number 8.
There are six Wallabies in the starting XV for Western Force including Nic White, Ben Donaldson, and Darcy Swain. There is no Kurtley Beale, however, who was ruled out with a hamstring injury.
British & Irish Lions
15 Elliot Daly; 14 Mack Hansen, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Sione Tuipulotu, 11 James Lowe; 10 Finn Russell, 9 Tomos Williams; 1 Pierre Schoeman, 2 Dan Sheehan (captain), 3 Tadhg Furlong; 4 Scott Cummings, 5 Joe McCarthy; 6 Tadhg Beirne, 7 Josh van der Flier, 8 Henry Pollock.
Replacements: 16 Ronan Kelleher, 17 Andrew Porter, 18 Will Stuart, 19 Ollie Chessum, 20 Jack Conan, 21 Alex Mitchell, 22 Huw Jones, 23 Marcus Smith
Western Force
15 Ben Donaldson; 14 Mac Grealy; 13 Matt Proctor, 12 Hamish Stewart,; 11 Dylan Pietsch; 10 Alex Harford, 9 Nic White (c); 1 Tom Robertson, 2 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 3 Ollie Hoskins; 4 Sam Carter, 5 Darcy Swain; 6 Will Harris, 7 Nick Champion de Crespigny, 8 1 Vaiolini Ekuasi
Replacements: 16 Nic Dolly, 17 Marley Pearce, 18 Tiaan Tauakipulu, 19 Lopeti Faifua, 20 Reed Prinsep, 21 Henry Robertson, 22 Max Burey, 23 Bayley Kuenzle
Preamble
There’s much mystique about the British & Irish Lions; chiefly born of the legendary victorious tours of the early 1970s and the 1997 outing to South Africa with it’s associated documentary. This has led many to assume and expect that the Lions is about winning, but for years the tours were more about taking the notion of home country and nostalgia out to the colonies as a celebration of the putative factors that united us. Losing overall usually came in tandem with this.
Handy then, that this year’s tour has managed to uphold tradition and heritage by losing nice and early so all the “invincibles” chat can be shushed. However, the loss v Argentina was not technically part of the actual tour, so maybe not. Either way, this is the first game on Aussie soil and Andy Farrell and his men will be raring to have a W on the board before they cross the country to Queensland later in the week.
In the way is a Western Force side with some test experience smattered across them, not least in experienced scrum half Nic White. A quirky stat among the caps is replacement Australian hooker Nic Dolly, with his only test appearance being single game in 2021… for England.
This should be a nice and comfortable opener down under for the tourists, but let’s see shall we?