IN THE IMMEDIATE aftermath of the Lions gut-wrenching 16-15 loss to Australia, Brian O’Driscoll was left to lament his side’s shortcomings in two Tests decided by last minute missed kicks.
Last week, fortune favoured the tourists as the turf gave way under Kurtley Beale to give O’Driscoll another 1-0 series lead 12 years on from his last Lions tour down under.
However, as Leigh Halfpenny lined up a long-range effort long after the buzzer the writing was already on the wall. History is threatening to repeat itself.
“We were in, not control, but we were ahead on the scoreboard,” O’Driscoll admitted to SkySports.
“Six points clear, it’s that horrible margin where a converted try puts you behind. They battled away and we were a bit loose with aspects of our game and gave them opportunities to get their score – I had one loose kick there gave them a counter-attack option.”
Despite being part of an enormous defensive effort in which forced the Lions to clock up 158 attempted tackles to Australia’s 74 O’Driscoll knows that the men in red are fortunate to be level in the series at one game apiece. It could so easily be over.
‘Not shown an awful lot’
“We haven’t been able to close it out, I don’t think we’ve been able to build enough phases together in the couple of games.
“We talked about having not shown an awful lot, I still don’t think we’ve shown a huge amount. It’s very disappointing, but it’s not over.”
The tour moves on to Sydney. The largest city on the continent nation will host it’s biggest fixture in a decade as the Lions look discover some sort of a rhythm after the back-line stuttered and game-plan failed to materialise.
Had the Lions held on, O’Driscoll could have taken Sydney as a Lions victory lap, instead he’s gearing up for another punishing 80 minutes.
“We’ve got one massive week both from a mental and physical point of view to get ourselves right,” he says.“We knew it was never going to come easy and they’ve made it tough on us.
“The momentum from today’s game is with them, but we won’t let that phase us. We’ve got to dig deep to our inner belief that there’s no reason we can’t beat them again if we can get our game right.”
