Let’s get this part out of the way first.
Was it a penalty?
Yeah, I think it was. But it’s the kind of penalty that is only given inside the first 30 minutes of a relatively unimportant league game by a particularly finicky ref. Morgan absolutely dives with his clearout, and I think there is marginal head contact, but in the context of the game — the Lions had just scored the winning try in the last minute after a massive 18-point comeback to win a test series — it’s not the kind of penalty you’ll see given by most referees.
That isn’t the law, of course, but I think that’s how Andrea Piardi — who’s a little slack on the laws of the game at the best of times — interpreted it, and I can’t say he was wrong to do so. It was a penalty, but awarding it would have been decisively against the vibe of the game.
The head contact would need to be more concrete, more violent, more reckless. If Morgan had hit Tizzano with a croc roll or a clear neck roll, then sure, I could see that being brought back, but not for what we saw. I know I’m wrong on the law side of it, but that’s how I feel about it.
I think this try from Sheehan was far more obviously illegal for the simple fact that you can’t jump over a tackle. Sheehan jumped over three tacklers here, and the idea that he’s protected because he’s “he’s allowed to jump to score the try”, as the referee Andrea Piardi said to Rob Valetini afterwards, is meaningless. If he had knocked the ball on, would it have been a penalty?
There was already something of a controversy regarding this very thing back in 2022, when World Rugby had to adjudicate on two similar, in theory, anyway, incidents.
The last sentence in that clarification is the key one for me.
In principle, in a try-scoring situation, if the action is deemed to be a dive forward for a try, then it should be permitted. If a player is deemed to have left the ground to avoid a tackle, or to jump, or hurdle a potential tackler, then this is dangerous play and should be sanctioned accordingly.
That was a clear jump to avoid a tackle, not a dive into open space. If I were Joe Schmidt, that’s where my ire would be landing, if my ire was to go towards a referee at all.
I think that far more importance should be placed on working out how Australia managed to blow an 18-point lead in 50 minutes.
The headline is that Australia lost all ball-carrying and impact defence impetus once Skelton and Valetini went off the field. That is actually pretty close to the truth, just not all of it.
Valetini and Skelton combined for 18 carries in 47 minutes between them, and, for long segments of that first half an hour, the Lions couldn’t live with either of them.
These are just a few small examples of what both men brought to those first 30 minutes. Those two clips at the end are part of the 22 entry that led to Australia’s first try, and a yellow card for Tommy Freeman.
They forced compressions. This is a perfect example of it. Skelton’s gravity draws in defenders, the screen ball takes them out, and Valetini then powers through tackles to get the Wallabies onto the front foot.
They scored a few phases later and then scored right from the restart, leaving a commanding lead with just ten minutes of the first half remaining.
Honestly, if they managed to hold the Lions out for those ten minutes, I think the Wallabies win this game handily. Well — maybe not handily — but probably with a lot more wiggle room than anyone expected beforehand.
The key moment here was the following error right at the end of Tommy Freeman’s sin bin period, when Lynagh knocked on this contestable from Gibson Park.
It’s a decent kick — great height — but a pretty rotten chase by the Lions, who looked like they had the heart kicked out of them after back-to-back Wallaby tries.
Lynagh has a good two metres of space to work with here as he takes the ball and, sure, Lowe is putting decent pressure on, but nothing you’d be telling the kids about. Lynagh has three players in support who are there to secure the ruck position as long as he doesn’t spill the ball on contact with Lowe.
It doesn’t even get that far. Lynagh is looking for Lowe before he even has the ball secured.
Look, it’s a rudimentary error and, yes, Lynagh is as green as it comes at this level, but this error, along with others, is part of the reason why the Lions went after him so consistently. They were rewarded for doing so over and over again.
That gave the Lions a real boost. Freeman was back on the field for the next play and, because it was a scrum, they had a guaranteed 22 entry against a team that tends to concede from those at a high clip. Of course, that’s exactly what the Lions did, but the Wallabies will look back at this and wonder what they were at.
I think this is a pre-called play, rather than “instinctive” rugby. At the very least, I think it’s a concept the Lions have worked on where they pull a short-side “swap” to bait the opposition’s narrow side defence to leave a mismatch.
You’ll see Hugo Keenan running in to secure this ruck point, but watch how Freeman is trying to hold in Tom Wright.
Tom Wright escapes this only to drive in for a headless attempt at a counter-ruck off his own back, leaving Australia’s weakest defender one on one with Jack Conan.
Even body language alone — Lynagh looks like his sleep paralysis demon has just dropped down from the floodlights — tells you this is a desperately dangerous position, and the Lions duly converted.
Gibson Park sniped towards Lynagh, before releasing to Conan, who had four steps worth of space to pick his pass to Curry, and the Sale man finished strongly in the corner.
No big deal, though. Russell missed the conversion, which left the gap at 13 points with just five minutes to halftime. Skelton was running on the memory of fumes at this point, so the Wallabies needed halftime in the worst possible way. With 13 points, you can afford to kick long at the Lions and force them into ever more speculative transition starters, before they would eventually be forced to go on-ball to chase the game.
Once again, the half-backs need to look at their decision-making.
Lynagh kicked long off the restart, and Gibson Park sent another long exit down towards Wright, who ran back strongly to the Lions’ 10m line. So far, so good.
It’s worth keeping an eye on Will Skelton here, just to give you an idea of how wrecked he was at this point.
The Wallabies go through two post-transition phases before running out of forward ball carriers but instead of reading this for what it was, Lynagh was so desperate to cheese out the clock with the ball in hand that he ran this phase, sending Harry Wilson into a contact point that has Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Beirne and Tom Curry in it, with only two midfielders as ruck support.
This wouldn’t be so bad if those midfielders were lined up to support, but they weren’t. They were at least 5m out on the angle, with Ikitau, in particular, physically outmatched regardless.
Wilson spends almost two seconds in contact with Beirne and Curry before another Wallaby player gets anywhere near him. That’s an eternity at test level, so, obviously, he was getting turned over.
Sua’ali’i was penalised for his ruck entry — which was ineffective anyway — and the Lions had another opportunity against a Wallabies team who were gasping for the half-time hooter.
Russell kicked that penalty to around 7m from the tryline from just outside his own 10m line — arguably one of the best line-kicks we’ll see all season — except we didn’t see it on the coverage because the director was too busy looking at Curry fist-pumping.
When Dan Sheehan powered through Valetini to just about 3m out, there was an air of inevitability about the try that the Lions would, inevitably, score.
23-17. Nothing at this level. Twelve points in five minutes of rugby holed Australia beneath the water line, and their energy went with it.
The Wallabies had an 18-point lead that they threw away off the back of three easily avoidable mistakes. Those are the ones they’ll be thinking about this week, not a penalty that would have seen them flop over the line.
After half-time, the Wallabies were without Valetini and, shortly before the 50th minute, Will Skelton. But they started OK. They were kicking longer and squeezing the Lions in the right areas of the field.
Finn Russell made an error trying to exit, the Wallabies got to drive into the Lions’ 22, and a kickable penalty popped up soon after. 26-17. Not bulletproof, but defendable. The Lions finished the first half with all the energy, but the Wallabies did a really good job of owning the next 10, and they almost had a killshot off a bouncing ball.
Tom Curry went off right after this, but, genuinely, if he doesn’t make this tackle, Australia win the test regardless of what happens later. One of many regrets that the Wallabies will have.
From there, it felt like the momentum swung back towards the Lions. Bundee Aki cut up Len Ikitau — not the last time that player would be feeling like he could have done more defensively, even on this sequence — and the Lions had front-foot ball. They’d end up scoring in the corner through Beirne after Ikitau fell off an attempted tackle on James Lowe.
It was a four-point game.
The initial bench impact of the Lions didn’t really produce as much as I’ve seen it suggested. The Wallabies managed to stem the flow of momentum right up until the 78th minute. The Lions were going through a long on-ball sequence — right as the Wallabies would have wanted — on the Australian 10m line, going side to side to side. Then Finn Russell found this key linebreak assist to Will Stuart, and the Wallabies must still be wondering how he managed to turn this into a 22 Entry.
From there, the Wallabies were rocking back on their heels. They couldn’t get a single, meaningful stop to stem the flow.
When it came to it, it was Ikitau missing a key tackle that did the real damage.
I contend that this is actually a bad attacking decision from Gibson Park to hit Keenan here. As a defender, Ikitau and Jorgensen have all the advantages here. They’re on the 5m line, Keenan is running out towards the touchline, and the only out-pass from here is a 10m pass off his right hand that’s a low percentage make, at best.
Keenan’s first power push off his right does the damage to Ikitau, who gets caught flatfooted as he tries to cover across. The margins are so small that if Ikitau doesn’t sit on that line for half a heartbeat, he probably makes this tackle and becomes the Wallaby hero.
Instead, it’s Hugo Keenan winning it all for the Lions with the last big play of the game.
Such are the margins at the top end of sport, but the Wallabies will be looking back at this game and wondering how they managed to lose it. Ultimately, it was their defence that cost them, and it’ll be all the more frustrating for them as they had more than enough platform to see it out.
For the Lions, it’s a big victory on a tour that needed something to mark it out. An 18-point comeback will do in that regard, but they’ll be hunting for a 3-0 sweep.
At this stage, they deserve it.
You could say the same sweep would be fitting for the Wallabies, who look set for a disastrous Rugby Championship and beyond.
| Players | Rating |
|---|---|
| 1. Andrew Porter | ★★★ |
| 2. Dan Sheehan | ★★★★ |
| 3. Tadhg Furlong | ★★★ |
| 4. Maro Itoje | ★★★ |
| 5. Ollie Chessum | ★★★ |
| 6. Tadhg Beirne | ★★★★★ |
| 7. Tom Curry | ★★★★ |
| 8. Jack Conan | ★★★★ |
| 9. Jamison Gibson Park | ★★★★★ |
| 10. Finn Russell | ★★★★★ |
| 11. James Lowe | ★★★ |
| 12. Bundee Aki | ★★★ |
| 13. Huw Jones | ★★★ |
| 14. Tommy Freeman | ★★★ |
| 15. Hugo Keenan | ★★★★ |
| 16. Ronan Kelleher | ★★★ |
| 17. Ellis Genge | ★★★ |
| 18. Will Stuart | ★★★ |
| 19. James Ryan | ★★★ |
| 20. Jac Morgan | ★★★ |
| 21. Alex Mitchell | N/A |
| 22. Owen Farrell | ★★★ |
| 23. Blair Kinghorn | ★★★★ |
