The British and Irish Lions suffered defeat in their opening fixture for the first time in more than 50 years as Argentina downed them in Dublin with Andy Farrell not holding back with his criticism
The British and Irish Lions suffered defeat to Argentina on Friday night as their summer tour got off to a less than ideal start in Dublin. Los Pumas produced a stunning performance to seal a 28-24 win.
The result means the Lions have lost their opening game for the first time since 1971 – ending a 54-year record of getting off to the best possible start. That said, few teams from the past have played a team of the calibre of Argentina.
They came up with three stunning tries – their winning score coming from Santiago Cordero in the second-half. Despite missing all of their French-based players Los Pumas took advantage of a Lions side still lacking in cohesion with a number of new combinations tried.
Sione Tuipilotu and Bundee Aki partnered in the centres for the first time. England and Ireland stars came together in the front row but the forwards struggled to consistently nail their lineout.
Head coach Andy Farrell bemoaned the amount of errors they made in the aerial battle, which was dominated by Argentina, and also claimed their number of handling errors on opening night were enough for an entire tour.
READ MORE: Meet Henry Pollock: The British Lions record-breaker set to take Australia by stormREAD MORE: British Lions star Mack Hansen ‘wasn’t good enough for Australia’ and has Andy Farrell tattoo
He told Sky Sports: “It wasn’t exactly a show from us, it was a show from Argentina. First and foremost, congratulations to them, they thoroughly deserve their win. They capitalised on all the errors we made. But as far as we’re concerned, there is a lot to do. You cannot win any Test match with that error rate.
“We lost enough ball there for a full tour, let alone a match against a good side like Argentina. We threw passes that were never on. It wasn’t just that, it was the aerial battle and the scraps on the floor. They were hungrier than us, that is just not acceptable. The lineout and breakdown work was off a bit at times. I’m disappointed. We need to be honest with ourselves, take the learning and improve, then at least it will stand for something.”
The Lions will now jet out to Australia as they prepare for their first game Down Under next Saturday. That will take place in Perth against the Western Force as their schedule of games against the Super Rugby teams begins.
Farrell’s side will be bolster by the return of a number of key players, many of whom are tipped to start the First Test. Finn Russell will come back in and potentially occupy the fly-half berth with hooker Dan Sheehan also returning. The likes of Andrew Porter, Joe McCarthy, Josh van der Flier and James Lowe will also be available.
Farrell added on the performance: “We were just a bit tentative and obviously I take responsibility for that. When we came out with a bit of fight at the start of the second half it was more like it, but we just suppressed ourselves with the error count that carried on late into the second half. You don’t win Test matches when things like that happen. Where we’re at will certainly concentrate the minds. We’ll be honest with ourselves, we get on the plane to Australia [on Saturday].”
