Selection headache
Dan Sheehan, James Lowe, Garry Ringrose, Jamison Gibson-Park and Joe McCarthy all performed well against the Brumbies, maybe strongly enough to believe they are in with a shout of making the team come the Lions’ opening Test against Australia next Saturday.
Andrew Porter, Tadgh Furlong and Josh van der Flier are also likely to be in contention for starting spots in the Lions’ pack. Add Jack Conan, Hugo Keenan, Bundee Aki and Mack Hansen and you can see the conundrum Andy Farrell might be in about stacking the team with Ireland players.
You could nearly write the headlines yourself: ‘Irish coach picks Irish players to face Australia’.
Add the fact that Joe Schmidt knows those Ireland players very well and already we can envisage the hurlers on the ditch lining up to take a potshot at Farrell.
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Humming halfbacks
The double threat from Jamison Gibson-Park and Finn Russell was apparent on Wednesday and it’s something Australia head coach Joe Schmidt will actively work on controlling as he knows both players’ games very well.
Gibson-Park snipes all the time and takes plays down the short side of the pitch. allowing Russell to scan the inside where there is more room as the players have shifted towards the scrumhalf’s threat.
Not only does Gibson-Park’s domination of the ball take pressure off Russell, but it also makes him an active threat. Russell sometimes isn’t even watching the play outside him, With Gibson-Park controlling the direction and tempo, Russell at times isn’t even watching the play outside him, instead he’s looking around the pitch for mismatches and potential cross-field kicks, knowing that when the ball comes to him he has already made up his mind on what to do, pass or kick.
Rub of the green
Former Lions’ boss Ian Robert McGeechan showed himself to be something of a fan of Ireland players after the game against the Brumbies. The former schoolteacher, Scotland player and coach – who led the Lions as head coach in four tours in 1989, 1993, 1997 and 2009 and was an assistant on the 2005 tour – picked five Irish players to be first in the queue when Andy Farrell picks his first test match team next week.
Just Scotland outhalf Finn Russell and right wing Tommy Freeman broke the Irish hegemony in his starting backline selection. McGeechan had Hugo Keenan in at fullback despite his last outing not being his best. Try-scoring James Lowe was on the left wing, Jamison Gibson-Park was scrumhalf and Bundee Aki and Garry Ringrose were his two centres.
Russell on a roll
Russell decided to kick a penalty from the tee after 61 minutes in the game against the Brumbies to make the score 17-29. It was an unusual decision for the usual gung-ho Lions, who have been kicking for lineout mauls and steaming teams over for tries. But it marked a moment when Russell went into Test mode of possession, territory, position and playing percentages, giving a glimpse of how the Test matches may unfold.
In his last four outings, Russell kicked a fraction of his 30-kick Six Nations average. From what we saw of his kicking against the Brumbies, if the Lions decide to kick for territory and position much more than they have been doing so far in the tour his boot is in good enough order to make it turn out positively.
Defence issues
The Lions’ 36-24 full-time score against the Brumbies was a win but it isn’t a great look and Andy Farrell will need to iron out a few wrinkles in defence before the first Test.
The Brumbies scored tries right across the 80 minutes, beginning when Tuaina Taii-Tualima opened the scoring with a try on three minutes. It wasn’t merely a ferocious start from the Brumbies to get points on the board, they followed it up by consistently breaking the Lions’ defence right the way through the game.
