Gatland thrilled with ‘best ref’ Joubert for second Test

Australia 21 British & Irish Lions 23

The Lions got out of jail at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday, narrowly avoiding defeat because of poor place-kicking by the Wallabies, not least Kurtley’s Beale’s unfortunate penalty miss with the final action of the game.

For all the exhilarating play and forward power the Lions showcased at times in this epic contest, Gatland will know that if his side had gone down in this first of a three-Test series, not only would they have a colossal task to claw their way back into it, they would only have themselves to blame for needing to do so.

Cheap penalties and lapses in concentration that led to two breakaway tries from Australia, finished superbly by debutant wing Israel Folau, gave the home side every chance of winning a game they had no right to be in given their lack of match sharpness after a winter in mothballs. Add to that the loss through injury after just 52 seconds of designated kicker Christian Leali’ifano and the catalogue of further casualties in the backline and it is a hat-tip to the Australians they even had a chance to snatch victory right at the death.

Gatland has made it plain that he believes the refereeing of New Zealand’s Chris Pollock throughout the match but especially at the breakdown was a contributing factor to the tight nature of the contest.

Brian O’Driscoll was twice penalised early in the opening half for going off his feet in the contact area, his confusion at the decision and the worry that a further offence may put him in the sin bin effectively forcing his withdrawal from the breakdown.

Replacement prop Mako Vunipola was another perplexed Lions player after he was penalised for going in to a ruck from the side in the 74th minute with the game hanging by a thread at 23-21 to the tourists. Fortunately for him, Beale missed with the shot at goal, the first of two wides that may well haunt the talented back for years to come.

The Lions scrum, too, so dominant in the first half, was also a focus for Pollock in the second. He handed Beale another opportunity to kick for glory in the dying seconds after penalising the Lions pack just inside their own half. Cue Beale’s slip in the torn-up pitch where the scrum had taken place and the start of celebrations from the hordes in red among this 52,499 crowd.

Minutes after the final whistle, Gatland was asked if he felt his side had been “crucified” by the official. “Yes,” came the reply and though yesterday he rowed back in his criticism of Pollock, it was only slightly.

“The thing with him is that he wants to have quick ball and encourages the attacking team to play,” Gatland said. “We found it a bit frustrating at times but it’s like everything, you go through that experience and as coaches and players you learn a lot. I’m sure the referee has probably learned from that experience as well.

“A few players came off the field feeling a bit frustrated; they found it difficult (to understand) a couple of times when they were penalised. The penalty against Mako Vunipola, they penalised him for coming in from the side and he was part of the tackle. That could have cost us the game.

“But that’s behind us now in terms of the refereeing. We’re confident next week with Craig Joubert. We’re just looking for some consistency there, that’s all.” Pointedly, Gatland said of South Africa’s Joubert: “I’m looking forward to the number one referee in the world doing the game next Saturday.”

Yet there is more to come from the Lions and plenty for them to put right this week, despite the brilliance of both their tries, from Welsh wings George North and Alex Cuthbert.

At the other end, Gatland’s team were caught napping having completed 20 phases of possession, when they were led to believe they had advantage, as did anyone else tuned into the in-play audio feed of the referee’s words. Instead, he awarded the Wallabies a penalty and the brilliant scrum-half Will Genia took a quick tap and raced upfield, stabbing a grubber kick into Folau’s path for the first try in the 13th minute.

Folau would strike again 20 minutes later, in the process turning the otherwise immaculate Lions fly-half Jonny Sexton inside out on the right wing and leaving a number of opponents trailing in his wake, defence coach Andy Farrell pleading afterwards for more faith from his players in the structures and systems the coaches have put in place.

The Lions will take this victory, a first in a series opener since the last visit to Australia in 2001 but if they want to win emulate the 1997 tourists to South Africa and win the series itself, there will need to be a lot of sharpening up to do, even if the Wallabies have very large gaps to fill in their backline.

“I think we’ve got to be a little bit more accurate,” Gatland said. “Our lineout was excellent, the scrum brilliant in the first half and then not as good in the second half. In terms of the execution, it was a bit tough. We went out there and probably played, ironically, a bit too much rugby in our own half and around halfway in the first half. But then physically we felt in pretty good shape. It’s that Catch-22: do you carry on playing rugby and try and wear the opposition down or do you try to be a bit smarter in the way you play and play a bit more territory.

“We probably need to look at our game management a bit and make sure we are a bit smarter in that going into next week.”

AUSTRALIA: B Barnes (K Beale, 38); I Folau, A Ashley-Cooper (N Phipps, 76), C Leali’ifano (P McCabe, 1; L Gill, 47), D Ioane; J O’Connor, W Genia; B Robinson (J Slipper, 69), S Moore, B Alexander (S Kepu, 57); K Douglas (R Simmons, 68), J Horwill (capt); B Mowen, M Hooper, W Palu.

Replacements not used: S Fainga’a

BRITISH & IRISH LIONS: L Halfpenny; A Cuthbert, B O’Driscoll, J Davies, G North; J Sexton, M Phillips (B Youngs, 62); A Corbisiero (M Vunipola, 52), T Youngs (R Hibbard, 65), A Jones (D Cole, 52); A W Jones (G Parling, 70), P O’Connell; T Croft (D Lydiate, 72), S Warburton (capt), J Heaslip.

Replacements not used: O Farrell, S Maitland.

Referee: Chris Pollock (New Zealand).