Observations from the ground.
As with the Force, I'm a bit perplexed as to why we went away from what was working. Aki and Jones were the weak link and we battered them early. Our forwards were rolling through nicely and we were making metres after contact with great leg drive. There was acres of space behind the line all night with Daly and van der Merwe staying the backfield - we kicked behind them twice early and we scored once and got a turnover another time. I guess it could the pressure that they put you under but we had opportunities to continue all of that and we stopped taking clever risks.
Talking of risks, I thought Uru was poor tonight, invited a lot of pressure and it showed on the tight five. I was very surprised that they didn't hook him at 45 minutes or even substitute him for the match at any point. On substitutions, I felt we missed a trick by not going a little earlier. With a 6-2 bench, you'd want to be giving everyone a break early. I also think we sent too much help to defend Aki who was not really threatening. Van der Merwe was walking over the line.
Without Tate and Lynagh we really do miss a steady hand out there controlling the flow. Thomas did well, especially early, but we were basically completely directionless by the time he went off. We could really use a JOC (James O'Connor) right now.
For the Lions, Itoje was immense in the tackle and wrestle and he just did it all night. Gibson-Park an extremely steady hand that new how to get it wide. I was shocked at how well the Lions defended wider given they barely know each other. You'd swear it was us who were the team without much time together.
