The Rugby Thread

[Buzzo]

Lions probably lucky to not have someone in the bin here. Multiple pens.

[Irishnev]

Earl got away with a no arms tackle, feel like we should be further ahead. Beirne has been immense, so effective

[Irishnev]

Also Smith instead of Russell….. hmmm, big last 10 mins now

[Irishnev]

Freeman has looked out of his depth a bit

[Buzzo]

Australia have been good last 20. Couple of missed lineouts from the Lions. Second half has lacked the fluidity of the first.

[Buzzo]

Freeman has looked out of his depth a bit

Yeah I think there are opportunities in the back three, none of them have been great. Keenan with a missed tackle there and losing ball in the air for the first try.

Fair play to Australia. Making a real fight of it. Didn’t see this close a game after 20 mins.

[Irishnev]

A win but less than impressive, Skelton and Valenti will add oomph to their pack. Plenty of area for improvement

JGP superb as per, Beirne and Curry in the pack

[Buzzo]

They got better once the changes started. Their bench impacted more than the Lions.

Second half Lions attack didn’t really get going.

[Sus]

Omg we got the **** kicked out of us. Lions dropping intensity allowed us to come back into it

That first half was an embarrassment- we could not get any go forward at all, couldn’t hold the ball for multiple phases or get across the advantage line

Only source of optimism is that our outside backs can hurt the Lions, we just need to give them front foot ball

But overall that was a weird test, without that edge in the spectators that you normally see - I think us Aussies could see how much stronger the Lions were in contact and were hoping for a respectable score

[Buzzo]

Yeah thatÂ’s a fair summary. Was looking like it could have been gilt after first half and hard to not believe there is a gulf in class.As Nev says Valletini and Skelton will add some bulk.

Also agree on the weirdness of atmos and agree on summary as to why. Good for the series that it was close-ishÂ… but tbh never in doubt after the try at start of second.

Though Tuipolotu was excellent against Suaalii.

Cant see many changes for Lions in second test, maybe second row if McCarthy injured. And back three none of whom had good games.

Can see Hansen and Kinghorn coming in.

[Sus]

Yep agreed Buzzo on Valentino and Skelton - they will help, but that won’t be enough

Weirdly enough, I think that scrum penalty won towards the end of the game against hr Lions might help the Wallabies front row build some confidence


Or maybe I’m clutching at straws for the second test

[Buzzo]

The last 20 has to offer Hope but equally may show us that we cannot afford to be complacent.

I think the front row replacements for the Lions were all relatively poor. You guys started to get scrum dominance and there were a few butchered line outs when Sheehan went off.

I can see changes in the back three and bench for the Lions. Kinghorn can come in and play wing or FB and covers 10 and kicks if there are issues. Can possibly see Owen Farrell getting onto the bench if he goes well on Tuesday he also covers 10 and 12. Other change will depend on McCarthys injury.

[Buzzo]

The pass at the end is phenomenal but the take, carry into contact and offload at the start is outrageous also.

[ame]https://twitter.com/gauthierbaudin/status/1946514434198790352[/ame]

Finn Russell has left commentators purring over his performances during this Lions tour

As Finn Russell’s mispass hung in the Brisbane night air looping over the heads of four Australian defenders, Sione Tuipulotu had a sudden feeling of deja vu.
During the ball’s two-second hangtime, the Scotland centre realised he had seen this movie before. Seven years earlier, Russell threw what might well be the pass of the century in a 2018 Calcutta Cup match against England that skimmed Jonathan Joseph’s outstretched fingertips before landing into the path of an accelerating Huw Jones. Again Tuipulotu just had to run on to Russell’s pass to effectively put the first Test to bed after just eight minutes.

“He threw a pretty similar pass a few years ago against England to Huw Jones off his left hand,” Tuipulotu said. “It was kind of weird, when he was throwing it I was kind of thinking of that, thinking he was going to throw it into that space. I didn’t have to do much, just had to accelerate and catch the ball. That’s why playing with special players is pretty cool. His nature helps everyone and calms everyone. Then you add to that that he’s got one of the best skillsets of any 10 in the world, it’s a joy to play with.”

This is already shaping up to be the summer of Finn. After winning the Premiership title with Bath, he is using this Lions tour to cement his reputation as the best fly-half in the world. After years of being variously dismissed as flaky and flashy, the Scotland playmaker is now showing he has the temperament as well as the talent. While head coach Andy Farrell made a point of praising him for not getting “bored of doing the right thing”, it is his glorious range of passing that had former Lions fly-halves Ronan O’Gara and Dan Biggar purring in the Sky Sports commentary.

Lee Blackett, his attack coach at Bath, says there are two things that make Russell’s distribution so special. Firstly, his natural wrist strength. For the pass to Tuipulotu, there is minimal wind-up off his left hand to throw the ball 20 metres at a velocity where there is no risk of an intercept.

Secondly, and more importantly, as Blackett told my colleague Charlie Morgan, his ability to catch-pass – how quickly he gets the ball in and out of his hands – is phenomenal.
According to Blackett, a large part of Russell’s technique was honed over the course of 15 weeks in Christchurch in 2013. Under the John MacPhail Scholarship, a couple of young Scotland players are sent abroad to study from the best of the best, which for Russell and Sam Hidalgo-Clyne meant heading to New Zealand to rub shoulders with the likes of Dan Carter and Richie McCaw.

As part of the internship, Russell played for Lincoln University under coach John Haggart, who runs Canterbury’s International High Performance Unit. “Finn wasn’t your typical driven high performing academy boy coming out of a private school. He worked as a stone mason,” Haggart tells Telegraph Sport. “He loved a beer. He loved being around students. He loved enjoying himself after a game. Because of the environment he was in, he was able to flourish rather than being restricted by boundaries.”

As much as Russell enjoyed himself – and Haggart still shudders about the thought of him perched precariously upon the back of Hidalgo-Clyne’s moped – there was serious work to be done. In the Canterbury set-up, they practice the basic building blocks of passing, catching and running with almost religious fervour.

“We would do a lot of work on our ‘no witnesses, only work-ons’,” Haggart said. “You spend time before training and after training just working on fundamental run-catch-pass. Sometimes that would be a static run-catch-pass or walking-run-catch-pass. When Finn came out, he had an opportunity as a young man in the 15 weeks that he was over here just to spend time on his run-catch-pass.

“Spending time on those fundamentals was a really high priority for us at that time during the Dan Carter era. It was really important for a 10 who could catch early, eyes up with his cone of vision looking ahead to see what can give him the opportunity to do what’s next.
“We work on the technical side of catching the ball on your fingertips and shifting the ball quickly across your body rather than catching, reloading and then falling away. It is pretty simple stuff but because he was at a stage of learning in his life he was able to adopt those principles really quickly and put that into practice.”

Go back a few phases before Tuipulotu’s try and Russell plucks Furlong’s pass out of the air with his right hand before releasing Dan Sheehan with an inside ball in the teeth of the Australian defence, which would have felt familiar to the Carter-era Crusaders side. “Catch early, carry centre and you either shift quickly or you are catching it flat like Finn loves to do which really tests the defences,” Haggart said. “I think catching early and catching flat with such quick hands enables him to put people into space while holding defence lines off him.”

What Haggart also noted was Russell’s improvisation. After receiving an offload from Furlong, Russell originally shapes to send a cross kick towards wing Tommy Freeman, but in less than a second he notices that full-back Tom Wright had drifted across leaving the space for him to pull the trigger to Tuipulotu.

It was this ability to adapt to a changing picture as much as the execution of the pass which earned a gushing tribute from O’Gara, the La Rochelle head coach on Sky Sports. “You have a gameplan but the first try isn’t in the gameplan,” O’Gara said. “That’s when you know you have a gem on your hands and he plays the situation in front of him. In the olden days it is a skip six to Sione.”

Haggart had no doubt that Russell was destined for greater things and perhaps the most intriguing subtext to the end of his time at Lincoln University, where he won the player of the year award, was that there was a serious push from figures inside the Canterbury organisation to keep him in New Zealand.

“Canterbury had spoken to me and we had spoken to Finn about the possibility of him extending his stay here and I know Canterbury were very keen to bring him in,” Haggart said. “But he was under contract and we had a long-standing relationship with the SRU that we needed to respect. If he had been out here on his own I am sure Canterbury would have hidden his passport and said you are not going anywhere.”

[Yozza]

What a finish!

British and Irish Lions defeat Australia 29-26, having trailed 23-5 in first half at Melbourne Cricket Ground, to clinch series win

[Buzzo]

Proper test match there.

Shame for Australia that Valetini could only give 40 mins. Game swung when he and Skelton went off. After last week that felt like a fitting match for a Lions test.