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MELBOURNE REBELS 0 vs 35 LIONS – FT

12.31
Lots of positives for Warren Gatland tonight. The second row were immense and both looked ready to step up to the test side. Toby Faletou surely staked a claim for a least a place on the bench. The Welshman carried like a beast but also showed there was more to his game than just making the hard yards. He was effective at the breakdown and showed exactly the kind of engine that a back rower needs against the Wallabies.

Warren Gatland: “We didn’t want them to stop playing rubgy. We showed physically what great condition were in.

“We left a couple of tries on the pitch in the first half. 

“[The change from last week was] player-lead, putting together a scratch team was tough on the players last week. We saw a difference performance tonight. We were throughly professional.

“For some of them it might be their last game on tour, so they wanted to send a bit of a message.

“I was particularly pleased with the defence the organisation. Set piece was good. We probably forced a couple of passes that resulted in a few turnover.”

12.25
Sean O’Brien just said he was ‘pissed off’ prior to the game. He’s much happier with how the breakdown was called by the referee (as were we). Two big-chested blondes talking to Will Greenwood now: Richie Gray and Richard Hibbard, both were excellent today. Talking about his impressive defensive performance Hibbard said the plan was simple: “Get off the line and make the tackles.” Rugby really is simple. Gray praises his lock partner and says he’s hopes he’s put himself in the reckoning for the test.

12.17 FULL TIME.
Tiperic wins the ball, but it goes back for a penalty to the Rebels. Woodward chips over the Lions line and collects his own kick: The Lions will be desperate for the shut-out here. Another penalty to Melbourne. Stirzaker spins it out wide but they’re bundled into touch and the game is over.

12.15
It’s worth pointing out how much better the officiating in tonight’s match has been. Suddenly it’s the sport we all recognise again.

12.11 TRY Lions (Ben Youngs)
Rory Best throws maybe his first decent line-out of the tour, finding Tom Croft who delivers great ball to the English scrum half who scoots across the line, throws the dummy, a solid hand-off and he slides over, glancing the post on his way. It’s a great finish. Hogg slots the conversion.    

12.05
Tiperic forces a penalty a the breakdown and Hogg plants the penalty in the corner. Catch-and-drive you reckon? Yep. The Rebels do a great job. Neville powers his way through the maul to bring down Irish hooker Best. The Rebels turn it over and Stirzaker pierces the Lions’ line, showing great pace he flies over the halfway line. He kicks it on and the balls out for a Rebels line-out. They go short and the Rebels are in in the corner, but the referee’s whistle had gone and it’s a freekick to the Melbourneans. I reckon they’d have rather had the try. 

11.58 PENALTY TRY Lions – Yellow card Rebels 
The Lions ring the changes. The front row is off, O’Brien is off, Kearney is off. Hogg goes to fullback and Twelvetrees steps into the stand-off position. The Lions force a penalty at the breakdown and secure a line-out on the five metre line. The catch-and-drive looks to be heading over the try line when the dreadlocked Gordy Reid abandons his sense and grabs Rory Best at the base of the maul. The referee awards the penalty try, and Reid heads to the bin for 10 minutes. 

11.52
Luke Jones with a stunning 50m break for the Rebels. There are few second rows on the planet with that kinds of raw speed. He’s eventually hauled down by Maitland. It’s getting scrappy down there, possession passing almost freely between the sides. The Lions eventually get the penalty and put some phases together in the Rebel’s 22. Glen Jackson forces Faletou to hold on to secure the penalty. Woodward’s boot doesn’t find touch.

11.46 TRY Lions (O’Brien)
The Lions are back on the Rebels’ five metre line. It’s a beautiful set piece to put the flanker in: Faletou collects the line-out and hands it to Richie Gray, Gray pops it to Lydiate charging from out to in, who in turn releases inside out of the tackle to O’Brien. The muscle-bound openside steps inside Neville and crashes over for his second score in Australia. Farrell keeps up his outrageous kicking form, slotting a third touchline conversion. Awesome. 

11.41
O’Brien is okay. And Farrell buries the penalty deep in the Rebels’ 22. The catch-and-drive looks on, but the Rebels regroup. Delve powers his way through the maul and pulls Dan Cole out forcing the turnover. That’s immense defence from the Welshman. The Lions make a mess of the Rebels scrum and Hegarty is forced to strafe along the dead ball line, eventually clearing it to only the five metre line. A few phases later and a lose pass from Maitland misses O’Brien on the wing. The Rebels clear. 

11.36
That’s a shame for the Rebels. Pyle, who was immensely impressive in the first half has picked up a knock and has been replaced by Luke Jones. The second half starts with some good possession for the Rebels, but they’re having a hard time getting over the gain line. Good pressure from Murray forces the penalty. Farrell takes it quickly and hurls a reckless pass out to Tuilagi, who has to jump to take it. O’Brien is down on the far side of the pitch: The flanker has taken a bonk on the conk, getting his head in the wrong position in the tackle. 

11.20 HALFTIME
Pyle bounces Sean O’Brien off. Not many forwards can say that. The Rebels have some great phases, they’ve got the Lions going backwards. Ian Evans is offside at the breakdown and Delve takes the line-out. Evans makes amends for his indiscretion at the breakdown, stealing the throw. The Lions clear to their 22. The Rebel’s get clean ball of the line-out but Hegarty’s through kick hits Maitland square in the breadbasket, he offloads to Murray who affects the clearance. And after their first meaningful period of pressure in the game, the Rebels knock-on to bring the half to a close.

11.17
The Lions just can’t make the ball stick when they’ve got a chance. The second they find a hole they drop it. If the Lions had managed to take their passes this game could already be out of sight. 

11.14
Farrell spots a hole and puts in Zebo in who miraculously managed to escape the arms of one defender before an unconventional pass creeps forward. The Rebels have a scrum 15ms out. 

11.11 TRY Lions (Maitland)
Woof! What a try! Tuilagi breaks two tackles and offloads to Maitland who steps one and arcs inside, he throws a beautiful pass to Faletou who slips 5ms out, the ball is recycled quickly and spun out wide. Pyle almost affects the interception but Maitland collects to finish in the corner. That was a beautiful move. Farrell converts. 

11.04 PENALTY MISSED Rebels (Woodward)
Again the Lions knock-on. There’s no excuses really. The conditions are ideal for running rugby. The Lions look to be panicing when there’s an obvious hole in front of them. The Lions are pinged in the scrum and the Rebels’ make a rare foray into the tourists’ half. O’Brien thinks he’s executed a turnover. The Irishman thought that because he was the tackler he could play the ball from wherever, but he didn’t actually make the tackle. Woodward misses the kick.   

11.01
Woodward’s restart is out on the full and the Lions force a penalty from the resulting scrum, but Richie Gray knocks on at the line-out. Under pressure from Faletau, Delve is forced to hold on and is pinged. The Lions get a scrum five metres out, but Dan Cole knocks on. The Rebels clear but only to their 22. 

10.46 TRY Lions (Murray)
Barritt dabs a deft grubber through, and under pressure from Maitland, Woodward collects and slides over to spot the ball down. The Lions have a 5m scrum. They smush the Rebels’ pack into the dust. The penalty advantage is there but the ball squirts out to Murray, who executes a textbook pirouette to avoid the attentions of two defenders and touches down. Farrell, whose looked impressive early on, converts for the extras. 

10.48
A first real look at the scrum. The first one goes down. And wooof! the Lions walk through the Rebel’s pack, who disappear under a flood of red shirts. The Lions get the penalty. Several phases later and there’s a huge collision in the midfield, Gareth Delves absolutely smashes Scottish prop Ryan Grant, who during his next carry surrenders the ball. But Burgess boots the turnover ball out on the full. The Lions have a line-out on the Rebel’s 22. Some solid phases from the Lions but Evans can’t take a flappy pass from Hibbard and it’s a Melbourne put-in at the scrum.  

10.45
The Lions are pinged for going off their feet in the midfield. Tuilagi, as Will Greenwood points out, is a little flat, hitting two crash balls at about half speed. 

10.41
A deep kick off and a slightly skewed clearance sees the Lions earn their first Lion line-out on the Rebel’s 22. Their first few phases are absolutely cracking. Snappy and sharp, they’re getting quick ball at the breakdown, and the forwards are releasing in the tackle. Owen Farrell shovels a pass out of the tackle to Brad Barritt with a gaping hole in front of him, and the Saracens man drops it. After one strong line-out the Lions promptly lose their next two.  

10.35
It’s a proud moment for Welsh number eight Gareth Delve who will lead out the Rebels. Men to watch for the Melboureans are powerful second row Hugh Pyle and the cultured boot of Jason Woodward.

09.54
It’s a huge night for Welsh flanker Dan Lydiate. The enormous 25-year-old will be looking for a big performance against the Rebels to banish memories of the Lions’ defeat at the hands of the Brumbies. Following the much criticised performance of Mike Phillips, Conor Murray will be looking for a performance to push himself into the test reckoning, and with Paul O’Connell out for the rest of the tour Ian Evans will be looking to make himself a certainty for Saturday.

09.46
Team news:

Rebels: Jason Woodward; Tom English, Mitch Inmar, Rory Sidey, Lachlan Mitchell; Bryce Hegarty, Luke Burgess; Nic Henderson, Ged Robinson, Laurie Weeks, Cadeyrn Neville, Hugh Pyle, Jarrod Saffy, Scott Fuglistaller, Gareth Delve (capt).
Replacements: Pat Leafa, Cruze Ah-Nau, Paul Alo-Emilie, Luke Jones, Jordy Reid, Nic Stirzaker, Angus Roberts, Cooper Vuna.

Lions: Rob Kearney; Sean Maitland, Manu Tuilagi, Brad Barritt, Simon Zebo; Owen Farrell, Conor Murray; Ryan Grant, Richard Hibbard, Dan Cole, Richie Gray, Ian Evans, Dan Lydiate (capt), Sean O’Brien, Toby Faletau.
Replacements: Rory Best, Tom Court, Matt Stevens, Tom Croft, Justin Tipuric, Ben Youngs, Owen Farrell , Billy Twelvetrees, Stuart Hogg.