One hopes for an Australian fightback to come in this series, but this felt like a first Test of potentially portentous omens. On a night where Suncorp Stadium was the beating red heart of British and Irish rugby, the Lions powered into a 1-0 series lead with a performance again comprised of too many fits and starts – but still too good for an understrength, underweight and seemingly underprepared Australia.
A second-half rally gave the Wallabies a thick varnish of respectability and hope to take to Melbourne, but they never looked much like beating the Lions for the first time in Brisbane. For long periods before the interval, the tourists looked to be lining up something resembling romp or rout, a few too many handling errors and ditsy decision-making capping their scoring ambitions somewhat, but an eventual eight-point margin still felt like a misrepresentation of the early supremacy they had shown.
