Advertisement
Dan Sheehan has pinpointed the breakdown as the main area the British and Irish Lions need to work on over the next 10 days before the test series with Australia begins.
The Lions won their fourth match from four on Australian soil with a 36-24 victory over the ACT Brumbies in Canberra on Wednesday.
Ollie Chessum, James Lowe, Marcus Smith, Garry Ringrose, and Josh van der Flier, scored tries for the Lions.
Finn Russell kicked 11 points, but the hosts breached the tourists’ line on four occasions, while the Lions had three tries ruled out.
BREAKDOWN BATTLES
In the previous match against the New South Wales Waratahs the Lions conceded 19 turnovers which greatly stymied the attack. Against the Brumbies it was 15, with a similar effect on their ability to create continuity.
“Something we need to work on is definitely the breakdown,” Sheehan told Sky Sports. “The Brumbies got good purchase out of our breakdown today, which is a sort of a carry on from last Saturday, so we'll have to look at that.
“Our urgency and the first two people in need to do a better job, and that's on us. That's in our control. Teams are going to go after it. That's the way teams come after us, is our breakdown, and they do a good job of it.
“We need to control what we control, and that's our first two lads in and we need to do a better job.”
Sheehan put in another impressive showing which is likely to lock the Irishman in as the test starting hooker.
He was successful with all 14 of his lineout throws, made 10 tackles, and carried eight times for 44 metres with two clean breaks.
DOING IT FOR THE TEAM
One carry featured a monstrous handoff on Brumbies flyhalf Declan Meredith that helped swing the early momentum back in the Lions favour.
“I'm trying to do everything I can for the team,” Sheehan added. “I don't really look at the individual stuff, but I thought we probably took a step up in terms of our attack shape today.
“I know we didn't get enough tries, but we were held up a good few times. You can see it's coming together nicely now, hopefully we can improve now, over the next week and a half before the first test.”
The Lions will now fly to Adelaide to face a combined Australia-New Zealand side on Saturday. After that, they have a free week before the first test in Brisbane.
“There was some really good stuff, especially in the first half, some really nice, flowing attacking play that was played at a nice tempo,” head coach Andy Farrell told Sky Sports.
“On the flip side we kept them in the game a little bit. We kept them in with a sniff, especially when you get over the line three times and don’t convert.”