That was not much fun at all was it? Despite a brief period of hope early in the second half, the Lions pretty well dominated the Wallabies in a 41-16 romp.
The ratings reflect the fact that basically no Wallabies managed any impact, whilst the Lions were good all across the park. Take a look:
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THE WALLABIES
Benn Robinson
Decent in open play, but part of a front row well beaten. Knocked on at a key point when Australia was deep in attack during the second half 5
Stephen Moore
Solid running and lineout work offset his role in the scrum issues. Tried hard. 6
Ben Alexander
A nightmare game. Demolished at scrum time by Corbisero. Yellow carded in 24th minute and did not return after that. 2
James Horwill
Overall, a quiet game from the captain. Some good work in the lineouts and in cover defense though. 6
Kane Douglas
Poor for a second week in a row. At fault for the error which led to the Lions’ first try and his night did not improve much. 4
Ben Mowen
Showed great maturity both at lineout time and in the ‘tight loose’. A proponent of the dark arts Australia has been missing. 7
George Smith
Looked like his fairytale return was over very early when knocked out cold. Returned and made a fair effort. Good with ball in hand and good in contact. 6
Wycliff Palu
Another decent game from the maligned Cliffy. Did well off the back of the scrum and hit hard most of the night. 6
Will Genia
Not as imperious as he was in the first two Tests. Looked dangerous on occasions when running. But a poor kick led to North’s try. 6
James O’Connor
Quick feet led to a nice individual try. But he was very poor aside from that. Woeful kicking game gave away masses of field position and squandered excellent attacking opportunities. 4
Joe Tomane
Very quiet in attack and missed key tackles in the lead up to two Lions tries. Not his best game. 4
Christian Leali’ifano
Excellent goal kicking for a second straight week. Quiet in attack though and whilst solid for the most part in defence, was nowhere to be seen on the Roberts try. 5
Adam Ashley-Cooper
A poor game from one of our most consistent players. Silly turnovers, indecision and a really poor missed tackle that led to a Lions try. 4
Israel Folau
One good run, before a hamstring strain saw him limp off after 27 minutes. 6
Kurtley Beale
A brilliant chip and chase and some nice runs were well and truly outweighed by the bad. Poor kicking game including his restarts and kicks for touch, plus an atrocious missed tackle. 4
Sekope Kepu
Played a lot of minutes. Never really got on top, but at least he matched Corbisiero somewhat at scrum time. 5
Jesse Mogg
Another reserve who played a lot of minutes. Generally looked really good on debut, his restarts and general kicking impressed. There were a couple of errors in his game though. 6
Saia Fainga’a
One poor line-out throw, but some nice work around the breakdown. 5
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BRITISH & IRISH LIONS
Alex Corbisiero
Scored a try, obliterated his opponent at scrum time and ran the ball really well. A huge game. 8
Richard Hibbard
A really good game. Excellent go-forward and an occasional glimpse of ball playing. 8
Adam Jones
Relatively quiet in general play. But made no mistakes and a key part of an utterly dominant scrum. 7
Alun-Wyn Jones
Stepped into the leadership breach. Strong around the breakdown and good in support play too. 7
Geoff Parling
Felled Mogg in the first half with a very important ankle tap. Aside from that, ran hard and like his captain, was strong at the breakdown 7
Dan Lydiate
Strong in defence, but overall was one of the Lions’ quieter forwards. 6
Sean O’Brien
Ensured the loss of Warbuton was not felt too keenly. Busy in defence, got his head over the ball continuously and played his part in the lineout. A very good game. 7
Toby Faletau
Possibly the Lions’ best forward. A beast when running and came up with a huge steal at a key moment when the Wallabies had a sniff early in the second half. 8
Mike Phillips
Pretty quiet but did all that was required of him. Distributed the ball well. 6
Jonathan Sexton
Looked good taking the line on. Took some fantastic options in attack and played a very clever game overall. Bad miss on O’Connor was the only blight on a good defensive showing. 8
George North
A quiet first half, but some fantastic breaks in the second and finished off a try as well. 7
Jamie Roberts
The man with the Buzz Lightyear jaw continually got over the advantage line and burst through a massive gap for a try. 7
Jonathan Davies
A really solid performance was highlighted by a couple of raking left foot kicks which put his side in excellent field position. 7
Tommy Bowe
Did some nice things, but again they couldn’t get the ball to him often enough in dangerous positions. One bad knock-on in quality attacking position. 6
Leigh Halfpenny
Where to even start. Was never out of position in open play, made some fantastic breaks throughout and kicked them from all over. 9
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RaboDirect G&GR Man of the Match:
As good a team performance as the Lions put in, there is really no doubting that Leigh Halfpenny was the man. Continually got to Wallaby kicks on the full, great positioning and was able to set up a couple of tries. That’s without even mentioning the goal kicking, which was super sharp as always.
The patented G&GR ratings guide:
10 – A legendary performance to go down in the history books
9 – Outstanding performance: Man of the match shoo-in
8 – Excellent all-round game
7 – Good game with a few sparkles
6 – Solid performance
5 – Average – ho hum
4 – Below par
3 – Had a bad game
2 – Tell your story walking pal
1 – A complete joke
