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'Shambles': Everyone is talking about concerning Lions issue again
By Josh Raisey
The British & Irish Lions’ opening quarter against the Reds was surprisingly similar to the opening stages of their victory against the Western Force on Saturday.
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On both occasions, Andy Farrell’s side conceded a try in the opening ten minutes, and while their line was not breached again against the Force, the Reds were able to dot down again later in the half.
Outside of the tries, the general performances were similar, with a smattering of errors besetting the visitors. A botched lineout, two scrum penalties and a few handling errors were present in the first half against the Reds, but in both matches, the Lions were able to gel as the half progressed.
Something that has been present in both matches in Australia so far, though, is their failure to deal with their opponent’s restart.
The Lions failed in their kick receipt immediately after scoring their opener against the Force, which gave the Perth-based side the field position to score their try.
This was an issue that persisted throughout the match, and while it would certainly have been something that was worked on in training between the two matches, the issue reared its head again in the first half at the Suncorp Stadium.
Jamison Gibson-Park and Jack Conan had their blushes spared on this occasion, as a communication breakdown led to the ball bouncing from a kick-off and just rolling dead.
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In light of another butchered kick-off reception, the Lions’ restarts have been widely panned online, with such descriptions as “serious concern,” “awful,” “a shambles,” and “a disaster” to name just a few.
Graham Love wrote on X: “The Lions might actually be worse than Scotland at restarts. Which is really saying something.”
RugbyInsideLine wrote: “What is going on with these kick offs? Needs some serious work, no one seems to know what their teammates are doing so far on this tour. Weird.”
Tight Five Rugby wrote: “These Lions kick receives have been comical in the opening two games down under. Never seen anything like it.”
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Of course, the point of these warm-up matches is to iron out any of these issues before taking on the Wallabies, and, to be fair to the Lions, they handled the four restarts they received in the second half much more comfortably.
