How the Scots contributed as Lions suffer fresh injury blow in victory over Queensland Reds

There were significant Scottish contributions as the British and Irish Lions secured a commanding 52-12 victory over Queensland Reds at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday.

Duhan Van der Merwe and Huw Jones were among the try scorers while Finn Russell, starting his second successive tour match at stand-off, kicked four out of four conversions before making way in the 50th minute.

While the trio of Scots starters left their mark, it was Maro Itoje, making his first appearance in Australia as Lions captain, who was at the heart of the eight-try rout as the England skipper left his calling card on Brisbane two-and-a-half weeks out from the first Test at the same venue.

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Elliot Daly, Bundee Aki and man of the match Jac Morgan also impressed, while another pleasing development was the promise shown by first-choice half-back partnership Jamison Gibson-Park and Russell. Paired together for the first time because of Gibson-Park’s recent glute injury, they linked well despite having been limited to one training session as a combination.

Russell was replaced 10 minutes into the second half having also started against Western Force four days earlier and was followed off the field by full-back Daly, who will undergo an X-ray for a possible broken forearm after being injured in a tackle.

Daly made a remarkable 11th successive appearance in a Lions matchday 23 after being drafted in as a late replacement for Hugo Keenan, who was ruled out by illness shortly before kick-off.

“Elliot’s got a bang on the forearm and he’s going for an X-ray this evening (Wednesday)," head coach Andy Farrell said. "We’ve all got our fingers crossed for him. He’s been back to his good old self. We’ve seen him do that on these tours before and he’s certainly the type of character that loves touring. He’s a people person.

“I phoned him up today. He’d just come out of the gym, had done a tough old session, and I said to him, ‘How was the gym session?’ He says, ‘Good, yeah, we trained hard’.

“I said, ‘Well done, you’ve won the golden ticket, you’re playing this evening’. He was not phased at all and that’s the type of characters that you need on tours like this.”

Daly’s injury, Keenan’s withdrawal and the fact Blair Kinghorn only arrived into Lions camp on Monday paints a picture of dwindling options in the number 15 jersey, but Farrell is comfortable with who he has available.

“We’ve loads of full-backs. Hugo will be OK tomorrow (Thursday) or the next day and Blair’s ready to go,” he said.

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High-risk, high-reward

The Lions continued with their high-risk, high-reward running game and while it produced a 21-12 interval lead against a Reds team that finished fifth in this year’s Super Rugby, the knock-on count at the same stage was 8-1 in the hosts’ favour.

It was their third outing on tour but they played like a team that had been thrown together in an error-strewn first quarter that saw two scrum penalties conceded, a line-out lost and the Reds boss the breakdown.

Tommy Freeman, Daly and Tom Curry made simple handling errors and there was worse to come when number eight Joe Brial swatted aside Curry and Ollie Chessum for Jeffery Toomaga-Allen to touch down.

The Lions hit back with a slick try for Freeman directed by Russell but the hosts restored their lead when Kalani Thomas kicked through for Josh Flook to gather and score, punishing Van der Merwe’s hesitation in defence.

There was ground to be made in the wide channels for Farrell’s men, although their next try came from a route-one approach when Andrew Porter barged across from a short-range free-kick.

The Lions’ extra firepower was evident in open play and it was sharp handling by Chessum and Jack Conan that sent Van der Merwe over in the corner.

Gibson-Park produced a pleasing moment given his recent injury issues with a sniping run after a hard carry by Aki that set up a try for Itoje.

Faced with the arrival of the Lions’ heavy duty bench reinforcements, the Reds were folding, with Alex Mitchell sending Morgan over before Freeman showed his strength to score after impressive build-up play.

Itoje was growing in stature as the match wore on and there were late tries for Jones, who showed great pace to run in from 60 metres following an interception, and Garry Ringrose, driving the final nail into the hosts’ coffin.