THE FEW LIONS PLAYERS WHO IMPROVED THEIR TEST CHANCES IN AN UNTIDY WIN OVER WARATAHS

A POSITIVE OUTING for Huw Jones can be construed as a win for Sione Tuipulotu, too, with the Scottish midfield combo proving one of the two most reliable units — along with the front row — in an otherwise error-strewn team display in Sydney.

Four games into the Lions’ summer, this was the first occasion on which Andy Farrell opted to start a national-team duo in the centre and it was 13 Jones who especially caught the eye, primarily because he scored two of the Lions’ three tries.

Indeed, those two scores came from Jones’ first three carries — and they took some finishing, too.

For the first of them, Jones combined with Tuipulotu to split Wallabies Lalakai Foketi and Darby Lancaster in the Tahs’ defensive line, timing and angling his run perfectly to collect a no-look pass from his fellow Glasgow Warrior to rush under the posts.

The second was all Jones, who finished artfully and powerfully in equal measure from close range. The 31-year-old danced past the first would-be tackler and rode two more hits to get within an inch of the line before reaching over legally with his next movement to double his tally.

While he hardly set the world alight otherwise (no Lion did, really), Jones did lead the Lions backs for carries, was second only to Alex Mitchell — by two metres — for distance gained (42m), and also beat more defenders than any other back not named Mitchell on a day when the Waratahs’ line-speed greatly troubled a butter-fingered Lions attack.

Whereas he was, by his standards, very quiet against the Reds until his opportunistic try on Wednesday, Jones indicated on Saturday that he’s growing into the tour having only recently shaken off a recurring Achilles issue.

2. Finlay Bealham

As expected, Finlay Bealham gave former Glasgow and Scotland U20 loosehead Tom Lambert an awful evening of it in the scrum.

The Connacht and Ireland star won at least two penalties on his side, albeit the starting Lions front row regularly crushed its Waratahs equivalent to such an extent that it was sometimes difficult to distinguish the specific offence for which referee Paul Williams blew his whistle.

But with Tadhg Furlong still returning to full fitness and Will Stuart enduring an underwhelming, penalty-laden outing against the Reds, Bealham is certainly in contention for a place in a Lions Test 23, and perhaps even a starting XV, as things stand.

A bit like Huw Jones above, Saturday’s performance against the ‘Tahs wasn’t even near Bealham’s best — he had an uncharacteristically low tackle count, for example — but the 51-cap Ireland international was one of the few Lions players to hit the breakdown with intent and contributed to a near flawless day for the tourists on the set-piece front.

(It’s worth noting that loosehead Pierre Schoeman was also monstrous in the scrum but it’s difficult to make the case for his featuring in a Test 23 with Ellis Genge and Andrew Porter above him in the pecking order currently).

3. Honourable mentions

Scrum-half Alex Mitchell was named man of the match and certainly produced flourishes of attacking quality. Englishman Mitchell took his score extremely well, dummying right off the back of the maul before pivoting left, dummying for a second time, and waltzing over the line.

But while an influential third quarter saw the Northampton Saint make two line-breaks and inject some life into the Lions’ lacklustre attack, Mitchell also made some errant box-kicks and a frustrating knock-on at the base of a ruck which equally handed the impetus back to the hungry Waratahs.

Mitchell won’t start over Gibson-Park in Brisbane but having initially faced pressure from Tomos Williams, he showed enough this morning to stave off any challenge from replacement call-up Ben White in the short-term.

Back row Ben Earl proved himself the most dynamic athlete on the field, making well over 100 metres off 21 carries — more than doubling his nearest teammate with each figure. But the Englishman also conceded three very careless penalties, the last of which was an offensive lineout infringement which saw a subsequent Lions score chalked off by the TMO and referee.

Jack Conan will still feel he is in pole position to earn a fourth Lions Test start in Brisbane in a fortnight’s time.

Josh van der Flier was by far the Lions busiest defender, making more than a sixth of his team’s tackles — seven more than Pierre Schoeman and Luke Cowan-Dickie in joint second. Van der Flier’s tally of 17 is all the more noteworthy for the fact that the Waratahs had only 39% of the possession.

Van der Flier was also one of the few forwards on the field who acted as an effective link player but overall. That said, while he may well be in pole position to start the first Test at seven, it would be an exaggeration to suggest he moved the dial to a meaningful degree following Jac Morgan’s man-of-the-match outing against the Reds on Wednesday.

Finally, second row Scott Cummings resurrected his tour following his horror show against Western Force. The Scot’s work rate was off the charts, as seen with his early interception of a Darby Lancaster offload which saved a certain Waratahs try. Cummings also called the lineout excellently. He’s still unlikely to feature in Andy Farrell’s 23 for the first Test, but if he can pick up in his next appearance where he left off today, he’ll start to feel like a viable option in the event of injury.

2025-07-05T14:05:26Z