The Lions got their tour of Australia off to the best possible start with a record-breaking 116-10 victory over amateur side Western Australia in Perth today. This result surpassed the record held by the 1974 Lions who beat the South West Districts in South Africa 97-0. Today's match also saw the Lions score a record-breaking 18 tries and sent out a strong warning to world champions Australia that they are a side to be reckoned with.
However, the squad and management team will be bitterly disappointed that they allowed their vastly inferior opponents to touchdown twice in the game - Brent Becroft and replacement Robbie Barugh were the heroes for Western Australia - and there are further worries for coach Graham Henry with Iain Balshaw picking up an injury in the dying minutes.
Although the final scoreline is impressive on paper, Western Australia were unsurprisingly outclassed by the Lions' professional players and the difference in standards between the sides was evident from the start as man-of-the-match Scott Quinnell opened scoring with the Lions first try after a mere three minutes. The Lions completely dominated the opening 40 minutes while Western Australia barely made it out of their own half.
By the interval, the Lions had notched up eight more tries, while Ireland's Ronan O'Gara had successfully converted six, to lead 57-0. In the second half, the Lions added another nine tries while O'Gara finished with 26 points after converting a total of 13 tries in the match.
Quinnell and wing Dan Luger both claimed a hat-trick of tries, while scrum-half Rob Howley, flanker Neil Back and substitute Iain Balshaw collected two apiece, with Will Greenwood, Mark Taylor, Simon Taylor, Brian O'Driscoll, Danny Grewcock and Austin Healey all contributing one each.
On the down side, Balshaw was brought off late on with what looked like a shoulder injury. The England international sustained a shoulder injury during the Premiership play-off final between Bath and Leicester a month ago and could be in trouble if today's injury is a recurrence of that problem.
The talking point preceding this match was the inclusion of Irish international Brian O'Driscoll at full-back. Although O'Driscoll was rarely troubled by the WA attack, he looked more confident and dangerous when he moved back into his usual spot in the centre late in the second half and topped off his performance with the Lions 18th and final try of the game.
Afterwards, Lions captain and Irish international Keith Wood was realistic about the significance of today's victory. "We didn't expect that number of points but that was pretty good and we're happy enough," he told Sky Sports. "We're not bouncing off the walls. I think you have to be realistic, we were playing what was mostly an amateur side so you would expect to win and win well. But we are happy, we scored a lot of tries, we did a lot of things well although we still have an awful lot of tinkering to do obviously," he added.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
