Damning image of Lion emerges after series win with major backlash online

The British & Irish Lions may have come away victorious in their series against Australia, but their humbling third Test loss in Sydney left a sour taste in fans’ mouths, with various players’ performances called into question.

One of those was loosehead prop Andrew Porter, whose scrummaging technique was called into question yet again by fans online. The angle in which Ireland and Leinster’s 125kg prop drives in the scrum has long been queried and called out by fans, but those calls reached fever pitch after his third Test performance against the Wallabies.

The 29-year-old was in no way on the right side of referee Nika Amashukeli’s whistle in the loss, but fans online are still dismayed by what he was able to get away with.

Just hours after the match, ‘Front Row Grunt’ shared an aerial image of Porter’s scrummaging, where he was effectively driving at a 90° angle, writing: “Porter up to his normal tricks again yesterday…. And the most astonishing thing is? It was the Aussies who got penalised in this scrum!”

Porter up to his normal tricks again yesterday…. And the most astonishing thing is? It was the Aussies who got penalised in this scrum! pic.twitter.com/UAVZ9p39fv

— Front Row Grunt (@FrontRowGrunt) August 3, 2025

This post had dozens of fans commenting in agreement, with ‘Scrummaging Flyhalf’, who also called out Porter’s scrummaging in the second Test online, writing “Not even Shane Warne got that much turn in Australia!”

Former referee Nigel Owens did offer a defence for the Irishman, writing: “Although I am not disputing either way with you on this image, you can only make an accurate call if you see the whole sequence in motion, not just a still image.”

Many others shared similar posts online, including ‘Scoop Rugby’, who wrote: “I’m sorry but Andrew Porter on those aerial views is a f**ckn criminal for the way he binds down to scrum. WOW. And they are all in front of the referee!!!”

One fan wrote, “How Porter is allowed to scrummage at that angle is beyond me. Should be a penalty almost every scrum,” while another wrote “, Andrew Porter would never win a scrum if he was forced to scrum straight. Nika allowing him to scrum skew just to get the ball out.” 

Porter was swiftly taken off just minutes into the second half of the final Test and replaced with Ellis Genge, who proceeded to win his own scrum penalty.