It wasn’t pretty. In fact, it was downright nervy at times. But the British & Irish Lions escaped Docklands Stadium with a 24–19 win over a fired-up First Nations & Pasifika XV (FNP), keeping their unbeaten tour of Australia intact—even if it felt like a near miss.
Jamie Osborne bagged a brace, while wingers Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe also got over the line. That should have been enough to put FNP away comfortably. It wasn’t. Not by a long shot.
The invitational hosts, bursting with pride and physicality, outmuscled the Lions at the breakdown and gave Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies a blueprint for chaos. Tries from Tristan Reilly, Seru Uru, and Rob Leota had the Lions hanging on at the death – Leota’s late surge closing the gap to five points with under 10 minutes to play.
Andy Farrell’s side technically marches on – seven from seven in Australia—but their coach won’t be sleeping easy ahead of Saturday’s second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The series may be on the line, but so is composure, cohesion, and credibility.
One Farrell who didn’t falter? Owen. The ex-England skipper led the midweek Lions with trademark bite and vision. He was in the thick of it from the first whistle – flying in to defend Graham after a crunching Reilly tackle (which earned the FNP winger a yellow), and moments later, chipping deftly for Osborne’s opening try.
Owen didn’t sugar-coat it post-match:
“Probably wasn’t our best performance, but massive, massive credit’s got to go to the First Nations and Pasifika boys – they came after us tonight. They got off the line really well, they caused us some trouble… I’m thankful we got the job done in the end.”
The Lions did get the job done. But this wasn’t dominance. It was a warning.
The kind of warning that will be echoing loudly around Lions camp HQ until kickoff at the G.
