Reds vs Lions takes: Debutant's Wallabies statement, lopsided Lions

A 54-7 win over the Force kicked off the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia just four days ago, but the second-best finishing Australian side of 2025 looked to make more of an imprint in game two.

The Queensland Reds have been a rising side in Super Rugby Pacific, and the hosts had the services of some top talent, including two capped All Blacks in the front row, for a match 12 years in the making.

It was a shaky start by the Lions, who dropped the ball a number of times in the opening quarter. But as they did in Perth, the superstar squad found their feet as the match wore on.

The Reds faded after a promising start, and by the final whistle, it was another 50-piece on the board for the visitors.

Here are some takeaways from the contest.

Fixture

British & Irish Lions

Reds

12 - 52

Full-time

British & Irish Lions

All Stats and Data

Reds debutant makes Wallabies statement

Just two weeks ago, Aidan Ross was playing in the Super Rugby Pacific final, wearing a Chiefs jersey. On Wednesday night, he made his Reds debut against the Lions.

It wasn’t the first time Ross had faced a handful of those Lions players, though, with his two All Blacks caps both coming against Ireland in 2022.

Since then, Ross has remained a steady hand in both his core roles and around the park. In 2025, the 29-year-old helped lead the Chiefs to a global club rugby-leading 97.3 per cent scrum success.

Against the Lions on Wednesday night, Ross was as steady as a rock in the scrums while his opposite, Will Stuart, conceded two early penalties.

The Sydney-born powerhouse is locked in with the Reds for the next three seasons and had the chance to stake his Wallabies claim in his Brisbane debut. Angus Bell, James Slipper and Tom Robertson are the three looseheads named in the Australia squad to play Fiji, and with Robertson playing the Lions just four days earlier, Joe Schmidt had the chance to make a direct comparison between the two.

Ross contributed seven carries and nine tackles on the night.

Lopsided Lions

After coming off the bench to sure up the Lions scrum against the Western Force, Andrew Porter was again looking like a one-man band at scrum time throughout the opening half.

While the Lions look to be preferring open-field play to set-piece, presumably to get some attacking cohesion together, the few scrums that were put down were far from convincing.

The Western Force gave the Lions trouble in game one of the tour, despite emerging from Super Rugby Pacific as the least effective scrummaging outfit.

While the left side of the scrum looked better against the Reds, the right side was still unable to gain any ascendancy, and that continued when the reserves filtered into the contest.

Ellis Genge made his presence felt once on the field, responding to Porter’s form with a performance that will keep the starting No.1 debate alive.

A captain’s nod

This is why Maro Itoje is Lions captain. The lock was immense on Wednesday night, stealing lineout ball, claiming intercepts and chewing through tackle after tackle. He also had as many turnover wins and offloads as anyone on the park, and scored a powerful five-pointer.

The 30-year-old was no doubt a factor in the Lions’ looseheads performing well at scrum time, and went without a single penalty against him. Despite taking a knee in the 71st minute, the Lions’ talismanic leader ploughed on to complete the full 80 minutes.

Aussies stuck in the shallow end

Without their full complement of Wallabies on hand, the Australian Super sides are falling off late in games.

Of all the games to have your depth as a club tested, it goes without saying that these are the ones that will expose you the most.

The Super Rugby Pacific season saw two teams who had the luxury of bringing capped All Blacks off the bench compete in the final, but it’s unlikely we’ll see such impact in the reserve units on this tour. Meanwhile, the Lions are obviously bringing on hundreds of international caps worth of experience.

It was a promising start from the Reds, who scored the game’s opening try in the seventh minute, and were making inroads with their phase play in the opening 20 minutes.

It gave fans a glimpse of the kind of contest we could be enjoying, with heavyweight collisions and a real sense of energy and confidence from the hosts.

The Wallabies may not have to release their stars for these early fixtures, but it is short-changing the fans.