If last week’s second Test at the MCG was an epic occasion of grand proportions, this was a rugby experience quite unlike just about anything that had gone before in a very different way. It was tough to make sense of all that unfolded over 80 minutes – and more – of chaos and carnage: a series of worrying head injuries, brawls breaking out all over the place and a 40-minute delay as lightning brought a halt to messy proceedings early in the second half.
And, at the end of it all, Australia emerged from a night of incident and accident having avoided the ignominy of a 3-0 whitewash. There was to be no glorious farewell for a British & Irish Lions side that had thought of themselves as history-makers; it was the Wallabies with a golden goodbye. The tourists had spoken of finishing the job properly, gathering together for one last push to go where no Lions team had since 1927 – but a combination of misfortune and mishaps left a dispirited group to celebrate a series victory on the back of a damp squib of a defeat.
