FOR FULL MATCH REPORT

Farrell’s penalty just two minutes from time caps immense performance as Lions hunt down history

EVEN now, hours after the shrill blast of Jérôme Garcès’ final whistle brought an end to this epic second Test, it is hard to comprehend what was witnessed in a gripping clash that will live on long in the memory.

This didn’t quite go to script. The back-to-back world champions were overwhelming favourites to clinch the series with a match to spare. So much for the script. Sonny Bill Williams became the first All Black player to be sent off since the famed Colin Meads was sanctioned by Irish referee Kevin Kelleher at Murrayfield 50 years ago.

To add insult to injury, the All Blacks were beaten on home soil for the first time in 2,849 days, stretching all the way back to a 2009 loss to South Africa in Hamilton.

Having been written off, with the very future of the Lions also under scrutiny, the series is very much alive and kicking as the circus heads back to Auckland.

The history books will show that a 78th-minute penalty kick clinched it for the tourists, but to dwell on that moment alone would be a disservice to so many other incidents which played an integral part in a riveting, action-packed narrative.

Perhaps there was method to Warren Gatland’s madness afterall. He had insisted all along this would be a fantastic series, bursting at the seams with rugby to salivate over.

He’s been proven right, despite the negative critiquing of the road he’d chosen to take. Team selections, a limited style of play, the Geography Six, a frequently bristling attitude… all have drawn fire since he stepped foot back in his homeland on May 31.

However, last night he emerged glowing from the furnace, even goading those who had been overly personal in their criticism to keep on doing it, as the only purpose it had served was to unite his tour party and help turn them from house-trained kittens to menacing Lions.

The victory came with an asterisk, though. It took the Lions 53 minutes to finally hit the front following Sonny Bill Williams’ 25th minute red card, a considerable wait that suggested they would not have been winners if this had been a straight 15 versus 15 contest.

Their struggle was indicative of their inability to fashion clinical attack play, a perennial problem whatever the tour.

The delay in getting their noses in front, though, was also an illustration of the amazing fight conducted by the All Blacks despite their numerical disadvantage.

They surged clear in the early part of the second half to transform a 9-9 interval scoreline into an 18-9 advantage that would have been more had Beauden Barrett not missed three penalties – two after the break, one disbelievingly from in front of the posts.

Steve Hansen refused to blame his 70 percent accurate kicker in the aftermath, but in desperate weather where they were held tryless and rarely got a sniff of the opposition 22, it was a crucial weakness.

Not as crucial, of course, as Williams’ long walk. Call it payback. The centre’s red card was essentially the one Tana Umaga (and/or Keven Mealamu) should have been brandished in the opening minute of the 2005 series when Brian O’Driscoll was tip-tackled into casualty.

It was an unsighted French referee, Joel Jutge, who let O’Driscoll down on that occasion, the old TMO rules preventing foul play reviews, an anomaly made worse by the absence of a subsequent citing.

Here, though, another Frenchman, Jerome Garces, wasn’t found wanting. He took his time to review footage and then calmly gave Williams his exit papers after needlessly

slamming Anthony Watson in the face with his shoulder. It was crude foul play and while the All Blacks tried to play up Mako Vunipola’s second-half yellow card for his charge at Barrett as something just as sinister, there really wasn’t much comparison.

The Lions were a mess by the time Vunipola was tossed in the bin. Having turned around level at the break, their mostly intelligent firsthalf street-fighting around the breakdown became marred by a wholesale loss of discipline.

And when Barrett punished a sixth offence of the half some minutes later to register a double-score lead, it appeared we were witnessing one of the great All Blacks displays of all time. We weren’t. Having manufactured nothing of try-scoring potential in the time they had been a man up, it was now, with the contest temporarily an even 14 against 14, that the Lions bared their claws, their much debated 10/12 axis of Johnny Sexton and Farrell finally visible as Watson streaked down one wing before play whisked back across to the other flank for Taulupe Faletau to dive past Israel Dagg.

A guttural roar was unleased from the thousands supporting the tourists in the rain-sodden stands and even though Barrett struck back with his seventh successful kick from 10, momentum had irrevocably shifted.

With the Lions restored to full strength, Conor Murray benefited from Jamie George’s directness. Farrell stroked over the levelling conversion and there was no stopping them from there, the winning points breathlessly arriving after substitute Kyle Sinckler was spun by Charlie Faumuina while in the air.

Cue bedlam. The Lions had their amazing win, Gatland his moment to savour.

And so to Auckland.