O’Connell ready to hit Test intensity

New Waratahs 17 British and Irish lions 47

Of course Warren Gatland’s 2013 squad is unbeaten after five games and certainly Saturday’s convincing five tries to two victory over the Waratahs represented the toughest physical battle yet, but as three-tour veteran Paul O’Connell knows only too well, the difference between tour-match and Test-match intensity is huge and as well as any preparation goes, there is nothing that can simulate the fever pitch at which Saturday’s first Test against Australia will be played out in Brisbane.

The Lions were sharp and slick and smart enough to ignore the near-constant provocation thrown at them in the form of late hits and off-the-ball nonsense that Michael Cheika’s side persisted with throughout this game. There was nothing as graphically violent as the common assault perpetrated by Duncan McRae 12 years earlier on Ronan O’Gara in the same arena, but what the 2013 Waratahs did was cynical in the extreme and mainly directed towards the Lions’ Test half-back pairing of Mike Phillips and Jonny Sexton, the latter being dispatched almost as far as Brisbane early on by a flying tackle from the monstrously proportioned lock Will Skelton. A 6ft 6in and 21-stone behemoth Skelton caused Warren Gatland’s men serious problems in more legitimate circumstances at the lineout and maul, each time manufacturing a try for the home side.