Jonathan Davies gave another accomplished display in the Lions midfield

by Paul Cook in Brisbane –

They promised a game and they certainly delivered. The Queensland Reds have pushed the British & Irish Lions to the brink with a performance of passion, desire and intent that ultimately ended in honourable defeat, 22-12.

The Lions may have come away with the spoils but the glory surely belonged to a Queensland side that outscored their much vaunted opponents by two tries to one and ran the ball at every opportunity in a white hot atmosphere at a packed Suncorp Stadium.

With Quade Cooper – in the last chance saloon for a Wallaby berth – conducting the orchestra, the Reds simply bedazzled the Lions in the opening half with pace, width and self-belief and looked fair set for a famous victory. However, the tourist’s withheld the early onslaught and in a rain affected second half, played the football to suit the conditions and maintain their unbeaten start.

The physical encounter also came at a cost with the home side losing players to injury left, right and centre and the Lions seeing winger Tommy Bowe and centre Manu Tuilagi forced to leave the field early. Tuilagi’s removal is believed to have been a precautionary measure but for Bowe, an influential tourist in 2009, initial reports on a hand injury suggest that his tour may well be over.

Quade Cooper used his full box of tricks to keep the Lions on the back foot but was it enough to earn a Wallaby recall?

“It doesn’t look too good for Tommy,” said a concerned Lions coach Warren Gatland afterwards. “It looks like he’s broken a bone in his hand and the doctor thinks he needs an operation. It’s huge because of the experience that he brings and he can play right wing, left wing and centre, he’s that sort of player so he’s a big loss for us. We’ll look at it tomorrow but we’ll probably bring out someone as a replacement.”

After two formulaic victories over a lethargic Barbarians and a makeshift Western Force, the challenge that the Reds laid down was just what the doctor ordered for the Lions coaching staff as they plan ahead for the three test series.

“It was a reminder to the team of what it means to an opposition playing against the Lions because they came out at a hundred miles an hour in that first twenty minutes and for us to soak up that pressure and guts it out and come away with the win, I’m very proud of that performance,” said Gatland.

“It was just the game we needed,” assistant Graham Rowntree concurred. “You find out about people and it was tough conditions as well, it was very wet second half and there were some tired bodies at half-time with the way they were playing but we dug in there, the set-piece went well and the lineout defence was outstanding. We’re delighted with the result, it was a good workout.”

Two second half penalties from Owen Farrell, who impressed in tandem with England team mate Ben Youngs, took the game away from the Reds as the Lions ramped up their defensive effort after the break, responding to the significant problems being caused them by a home side guided superbly around the park by Cooper and who had, in Luke Morahan, a man on a mission.

The flying winger had scored one of the tries of this or any season just before the end of the first quarter, fielding a high ball just outside his 22, spinning away from Alex Cuthbert and slicing his way into enemy territory before brushing off Sam Warburton and chipping over fullback Stuart Hogg to regather the bounce and score.

It was a sensational moment that threatened to lift the roof off the stadium as the Reds supporters leapt to their feet and they were in full voice again when Morahan also denied the Lions twice with last ditch tackles. Farrell, growing in composure with each minute on the field after an inauspicious start, kept the Lions ticking over with the boot before Ben Youngs crossed for a scrappy try off the back of a botched Reds scrum to earn a 16-7 half-time lead.

Owen Farrell scored 17 points in a much improved performance from Hong Kong
Photo: photae.com.au

When Reds scrumhalf Nick Frisbee traded passes with Rod Davies to dissect a static Lions defence and find the chalk in the 65th minute, the dream was still alive but it wasn’t to be as the Lions shut the game down as the rain began to fall and dampen the Queenslander’s attacking flow.

Reds coach Ewen McKenzie was proud of his team’s effort but had the air of a man who recognised a missed opportunity. “We got a couple of tries but we needed a few more in the end,” he reflected. “They took their points, they played the wet weather towards the end of the game a bit better and played the better percentage footy but the idea of how we wanted to play, we largely did that.

“We probably thought we wouldn’t get as much set-piece ball and we played away from those areas and kept the tempo of the game up and I think that put them under pressure but in the end, they were good enough to prevail. If we’d been a little bit more clinical and had a little bit more experience in a couple of moments – who knows?”

In a game of brutal attrition, the replacements bench was a revolving door as Queensland lost three players in the opening half hour alone, as well as Beau Robinson after a sickening head clash with Mako Vunipola and Ben Lucas, doing his best Vincent Van Gogh impression.

“The guys spilt a lot of blood out there,” McKenzie affirmed. “I think we got up to 50 stitches and Benny Lucas has just had his ear reattached. Greg Holmes got 30 stitches, Quade’s hurt his thigh, Ben Daley copped a possible compound fracture of his toe so there were lots of things going on and we had to work very hard with the bench.”

One positive on the medical side for the Lions was the successful return of captain, Sam Warburton, who came through almost an entire match unscathed. He was suitably content with the result and his own welfare. “A lot of the aspects of the game went well for us,” he said “we always want to improve but I don’t think there were any major weaknesses, it was a pretty well rounded performance. It was a good one for me personally because I haven’t played for seven weeks so I’m pleased I came through the seventy-five minutes and look forward to the next one now.”

The next one for the Lions, if not Warburton, is on Tuesday in Newcastle, where they will face a proud and committed Combined New South Wales/Queensland Country side. Unfortunately for them, it is unlikely to offer the same level of sought after discomfort as they experienced here in Brisbane.

British & Irish Lions 22 (Ben Youngs try; Owen Farrell con, 5 pens) Queensland Reds 12 (Luke Morahan, Nick Frisbee tries; Quade Cooper con)

Crowd: 50,136