Keenan the hero as Lions seal series with epic comeback
Second test
Australia 26-29 British & Irish Lions
Hugo Keenan scored a last-minute try against Australia to win a classic Test match and seal a series victory for the British and Irish Lions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
In front of a record Lions crowd of more than 90,000, there was nail-biting tension all evening during a game for the ages. Even when Keenan scored, there was a television match official check that would have had every Lions fan quaking in their boots.
Jac Morgan’s clearout at the breakdown was deemed legal, the try was given and the Lions won.
Incredibly, the tourists had trailed 23-5 in the first half after the hosts exploded into the game.
The resurgent Wallabies, driven on ferociously by Rob Valetini and Will Skelton, their returning totems, shocked the Lions to their very core in surging into that huge lead.
James Slipper, Jake Gordon and Tom Wright all scored in a blizzard of a first 40 minutes, adding to Tom Lynagh’s early penalties. Gordon and Wright both struck while Lions wing Tommy Freeman was in the sin-bin.
The Lions had scored through Dan Sheehan but they were pulverised for large parts of the half until they launched a remarkable comeback.
Before the half was over, Tom Curry and Huw Jones both scored. Six tries in a mesmeric opening period and a six-point lead for the underdogs.
If the scoring slowed, the fascination never did. Lynagh made it 26-17 with the boot before Tadhg Beirne scored in the corner.
With Finn Russell’s conversion, the gap had narrowed to two points, before Keenan’s dramatic late score ensured the Lions won the first two Tests of a series for the first time since 1997.
The Wallabies had been pilloried all week. Humiliated, almost. The reaction to their 27-19 loss to the Lions in Brisbane was unsparing and questioning of not just their mettle but the veritable future of the game in Australia.
We thought there would be a reaction but nobody could have foreseen this absolute thunderclap. At the MCG, they knocked the Lions for six early on. That first half was mesmeric; six tries, the impetus swinging this way and that, the Wallabies buoyant and then bruised, the Lions beleaguered and then battling hard to get back into it. It was magnificent.
It all started with a Lynagh penalty that put Australia ahead early on. Only mere minutes had gone when it was obvious that these Wallabies were a different beast to the timid animals we saw in Brisbane.
Valetini and Skelton set the tone, carrying hard and hitting like demons. The physicality and intent was fantastic. Lynagh made it 6-0 as the Lions shipped penalties amid the onslaught. There was aggravation out there. Some badness. The Wallabies had found themselves.
So did the Lions, briefly. Sheehan dived over to make it 6-5 but what happened next was extraordinary. Valetini in the vanguard, the Wallabies blasted downfield, won a succession of penalties which they kicked to touch.
They turned the screw and eventually it worked, Slipper barging over for a score that was rapturously greeted by the massive MCG crowd wearing gold.
What was worse for the Lions, Freeman was yellow-carded for trying to kill Wallaby ball in the build-up. What was worse again, Australia reacted to his yellow card like men possessed.
The Lions conceded penalty number seven after 27 minutes. Their living nightmare, Valetini, was everywhere, as if there were two or three of him out there. How glad the Lions would be to see him fail to come out for the second half.
With the Lions retreating and on the ropes, Gordon screamed into space at the side of a ruck and scored.
Lynagh’s conversion made it 18-5. A sensation. And it only got more sensational. From the restart, the Wallabies went again. Max Jorgensen ate up space down the right, then Joseph Suaalii motored past Bundee Aki to put the Wallabies into dream territory.
Suaalii found Wright and away the full-back went to the posts; 23-5. Gobsmacking.
Now the Lions were in a battle. Really for the first time on tour, they were deep in a hole. To their credit, they started climbing out of it. When Freeman returned and we were back at 15 versus 15, the Lions scored quickly. Curry went over in the corner – a try last week and another try in the second Test.
Curry was a significant force soon after when winning a big penalty for the Lions. Russell boomed a terrific touch-finder and eventually Jones muscled through Jorgensen and Tate McDermott. A six-point game and hope for the Lions at the end of an amazing first half.
Having suffered the loss of Valetini at the break, the Wallabies lost Skelton early in the new half. Not that it halted their momentum. They were slick and incredibly driven and soon they were nine points ahead again when Lynagh put over another penalty.
In a game of such tremendous turbulence, you expected the Lions to reply – and they did. And how.
An Aki surge up the middle, Ellis Genge in the next wave, then Itoje, then Morgan. Now it went out the line, James Lowe did wonderfully to take the tackle and offload to Beirne to score in the corner.
Russell curled over a beauty of a conversion and now it was a two-point Test; 26-24.
The endgame was unbelievably tense, the MCG was fantastically loud and this unforgettable Test reached its seismic conclusion.
Australia: Tom Wright; Max Jorgensen, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Len Ikitau, Harry Potter; Tom Lynagh, Jake Gordon; James Slipper, David Porecki, Allan Alaalatoa; Nick Frost, Will Skelton; Rob Valetini, Fraser McReight, Harry Wilson.
Replacements: Billy Pollard (for Porecki, 56), Angus Bell (for Slipper, 40), Tom Robertson (for Alaalatoa, 40), Jeremy Williams (for Skelton, 46), Langi Gleeson (for Valetini), Carlo Tizzano (for McReight, 61), Tate McDermott (for Potter, 19), Ben Donaldson.
British and Irish Lions: Hugo Keenan; Tommy Freeman, Huw Jones, Bundee Aki, James Lowe; Finn Russell, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong; Maro Itoje, Ollie Chessum; Tadhg Beirne, Tom Curry, Jack Conan.
Replacements: Rónan Kelleher (for Sheehan, 60), Ellis Genge (for Porter, 54), Will Stuart (for Furlong, 60), James Ryan (for Chessum, 54), Jac Morgan (for Curry, 54), Alex Mitchell, Owen Farrell (for Jones, 60), Blair Kinghorn (for Lowe, 60).
Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR).
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