Warm-up victory comes at a high cost for captain
THE dark cloud hanging over what should have been a bright afternoon for the Lions at Murrayfield was the shoulder injury picked up by tour skipper Alun Wyn Jones after just seven minutes of this pre-tour hit- out against a brave but ultimately out-classed Japan.
Head coach Warren Gatland confirmed soon after the final whistle that the 35-year-old had dislocated the joint and will not now travel with the squad when they fly out to South Africa today to begin their eight-match tour, which will culminate in a three Test series against the world champion Springboks.
Justin Tipuric also suffered a shoulder injury and is being scanned for nerve damage, but Gatland expects the flanker to be okay for the tour.
It says something of this team’s focus that they shrugged off the early loss of Jones to continue playing a rigorous, high-tempo brand of rugby which delivered the first of the team’s four tries just five minutes later. It was an excellent score.
Outside-centre Bundee Aki was the catalyst with a ferocious burst coming back against the grain straight from a line-out. His fellow Irish centre Robbie Henshaw then used his strength to suck in three defenders, but Josh Adams still had plenty to do as he hotstepped his way to the line.
Not to be outdone, Duhan van der Merwe made his way across to Adams’ wing to pick up at the base of a ruck and nip down the unguarded short side for a debut try of his own. The Scottish winger, who is returning to the land of his birth this summer, worked hard to get himself into the game, and threatened several times with ball in hand, but his defensive positioning remains a concern.
The game was only 21 minutes old when Tipuric followed Jones to the medical room, but the Lions again kept their cool to claim try number three in the next passage of play, with Henshaw powering home from close range.
Japan had their first period of pressure at the end of the opening 40, opting to run a couple of breakdown penalties instead of going for the three points, but the Lions dug deep and eventually snuffed out the threat with a choke tackle, which was a profitable defensive ploy for Gatland’s side throughout the game. It is unlikely to be as effective in South Africa when the Lions will be up against bigger opponents who are better equipped to wrestle their way to the ground.
The Lions fired out of the blocks after the break. Jack Conan thought he had got his name on the scoresheet after latching on to Dan Biggar’s chip into the in-goal area, but Liam Williams had knocked on a few seconds earlier as he tried to gather that some kick. Then Courtney Lawes rolled out of a tackle and over the line, only for the TMO to spot that he had lost control of the ball as he grounded it.
Finally, in the eighth minute of the second half, the Lions made all that pressure count on the scoreboard when Tadhg Beirne burst from midfield and thundered home from 30 yards.
With a commanding 28-0 lead, the challenge now for the Lions was to keep their shape and not be sucked into a messy race for points, and with both sides clearing their bench as the hour mark approached, the game did get scrappy.
Japan capitalised when replacement back-row Kazuki Himeno peeled round the tail of a line-out and shrugged off a Toby Faletau tackle to score his team’s first points of the match. Yu Tamura converted and added a penalty eight minutes later to make it 28-10. It could have been 28-13, but Tamura was off target with another shot at goal after a seatbelt tackle by Henshaw on the constantly threatening Kotaro Matsushima.
The Lions played the last 12 minutes with 14 men when Conan came off with a tight hamstring he had been nursing since before kick-off and, apart from one promising attack which featured Scots scrumhalf Ali Price off the bench, the momentum was all Japan for the remainder of the contest.
In-form Biggar was named man-of-the-match and laid down a marker for Finn Russell and Owen Farrell in the battle for the No.10 shirt, while, the Irish centres were formidable in both attack and defence and Liam Williams demonstrated that Stuart Hogg is not guaranteed the full-back slot.
In the pack, Tadhg Berne impressed at blindside flanker, the industrious and mobile Conan at No.8 demonstrated why he was a wildcard pick for the tour, Iain Henderson showed up well in the engine-room, hooker Ken Owens led from the front after Wyn Jones’ departure, Tadhg Furlong was immense at tight-head and loose-head Rory Sutherland worked hard in his first gametime in almost three months.
Nobody nailed themselves into the Test team, but they made sure the next group of hopefuls will have to hit the ground running.