Lions come to life after an early struggle

NSW Country XV 3 Lions 46

THE LIONS were on course for a much needed confidence boost against the New South Wales Country XV in the final match before Saturday's First Test against Australia in Brisbane.

A tour party that had lost five players through injury and had been beset by other problems was in need of a lift and a big win was on the cards.

Before the game kicked off there was a minute's silence to mark the death yesterday of Anton Toia, the Lions' baggage man, who had been assigned to the party by the Australian Rugby Football Union on their arrival three weeks ago.

Toia suffered a heart attack swimming to shore from a boat after joining some of the squad on a whale watching trip.

The Lions wore black armbands and the events of the past 24 hours appeared to affect the players who looked out of sorts .

The Lions replacements included England's Dorian West and David Wallace, of Ireland, who had arrived in Australia only hours earlier after being called up after the loss of Lawrence Dallaglio and the doubts over the fitness of Keith Wood and Rob McBryde.

They had to witness another poor start by the midweek side and after 23 minutes of embarrassing play by the Lions, the scores were tied 3-3.

That was hard luck on the home side, who are known as the Cockatoos. The Lions, on that first quarter showing , should have been remained the Cockupatoos.

Some semblance of normality was brought to proceedings by Ben Cohen, who stretched over the line after an attack in the 25th minute. It was a move that finally featured play you would associate with an international team playing against a bunch of amateurs.

The Lions pack, featuring Dai Young and Jason Leonard at prop, were in all kinds of trouble and this was an area where the referee opted to make life more difficult by finding continuous fault.

The series of resulting penalties meant NSW were on the attack in the early part of the game and it took a try saving tackle from Neil Jenkins to stop fullback Nathan Croft.

Croft also missed two penalty attempts but succeeded with his third to cancel out Jenkins's early effort in the brilliant sunshine of another clear blue sky day on the NSW north coast.

After 30 minutes, the Lions lead of 8-3 was looking fragile until Colin Charvis, the Wales flanker who has been starved of action on tour, raced over near the posts for Jenkins to convert and bring the first "Lions, Lions" cries from a crowd dominated by visiting fans.

Minutes later they were celebrating a first tour try by Scott Gibbs, who finished off a move started by Mark Taylor's steal from a ruck and featured Martin Corry, Austin Healey, Cohen and Martyn Williams.

Jenkins converted for a handy 22-3 lead and Healey extended the halftime advantage with a fourth try as the Lions finished a patchy 40 minutes 29-3 ahead without having to reach any great heights.

After six minutes of the second half the Lions had extended their lead to 39-3 thanks to another Jenkins penalty and a try from David Young, which Jenkins also converted.

NSW COUNTRY XV: Pen: Croft.

LIONS: Tries: Cohen (2), Charvis, Gibbs, Healey, Young. Cons: Jenkins (5).

Pens: Jenkins (2).

NSW COUNTRY XV: Croft, Tailasa, MacDougall, Shepherd, Crosby, Doyle, Petty, Baldwin, J.

McCormack, Bowman, Lubans, Wright, Dale, Taylor, Klasen.

LIONS: Balshaw, Cohen, Taylor, Gibbs, Howe, Jenkins, Healey, Leonard, Bulloch, Young, Davidson, O'Kelly, Charvis, Williams, Corry.

Copyright 2001
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