|
|
 |
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Cricket score Lions in 116-point massacre at the WACA
Updated: Friday June 08, 2001 11:59 AM
PERTH (Reuters) -- The British and Irish Lions opened their tour of Australia on Friday with a thumping 116-10 win over Western Australia, setting various records but getting little useful practise for the more difficult matches ahead. The Lions completely outclassed their part-time opponents in a ridiculously lop-sided match, racing in 18 tries to post their biggest ever total, eclipsing the 97-0 hammering of New Zealand's South West Districts in 1974. England winger Dan Luger and Welsh No.8 Scott Quinnell both scored hat-tricks while Rob Howley, Neil Back and Iain Balshaw got two each. Will Greenwood, Danny Grewcock, Mark Taylor, Simon Taylor, Austin Healy and Brian O'Driscoll also scored while Ronan O'Gara kicked 13 conversions for a personal haul of 26 points, but man of the match Quinnell insisted it was not as easy as it looked. "It's never easy and all credit to Western Australia for hanging in there," said the Welsh number eight. "We still have a few combinations and a structure that we need to put into place and we'll be working on that over the next few days." He added: "We're also very disappointed (with our defense). We had set ourselves a couple of targets today and one of those was to win and keep a clean sheet." Lions' captain Keith Wood echoed Quinnell's comments on the two lapses in defense and eased worries over Iain Balshaw who was clipped on the chest as he scored and then went off. "We scored a lot of tries and did a lot of things well, but we're very annoyed about letting in the two tries," the Irish hooker said. "It's given us something we have to work on." Wood believed Balshaw was okay. "I think he took more of a winding than anything else -- he still managed to sprint 60 yards. I wouldn't worry about him too much." Wood added: "It's acutally a great release to get a game under our belts. We've been kicking lard out of each other for a week now, training really hard and we all wanted to get out there. "You're only a Lion once you've put on the jersey, so there's 22 guys now who are far more relaxed." The Lions 18 tries was the most they had ever scored in a single match, beating the previous record of 16 set against Western Australia in 1930 and twice equaled since then. Despite going into the match without some of their star players, the Lions were far too organized and powerful for their amateur opponents, whose team included a local butcher and a motor mechanic. They scored their first try after just two minutes and 13 seconds when Quinnell charged on to a short pass from England center Greenwood and did not let up for the rest of the match. Scoring at better than a point a minute, they ran in nine first half tries to lead 57-0 at the break and added another nine after the interval to reach their hundred on the traditional home of West Australian cricket better known for the deeds of Dennis Lillee and Rodney Marsh than touring rugby players. Obvious gap The gap in class between the teams was obvious from the outset when Irish hooker and stand-in captain Keith Wood charged on to the field with the Lions mascot tucked under his arms then turned to watch the home team jogging slowly behind. The gulf became even more apparent when Western Australia dropped the ball from the first kickoff and the floodgates immediately opened. While the Lions were slick with the ball in hand and scored some enterprising tries, most of their scores were soft and the result of poor defense rather than great attack. Quinnell scored his second when he scooped up a lost ball on the home team's line and simply plunged over while England flanker Back was gifted two tries when the Lions forward pack walked the ball over from the lineout. Welsh scrumhalf Howley helped himself to two tries with nothing more deceiving than a dummy and a sidestep and Luger hardly beat a tackle to notch his three. To their credit, the locals did offer some brief resistance in the second half and were rewarded with tries to winger Brent Becroft and replacement scrumhalf Robbie Barugh, both in the right corner. But the Lions had the last say, piling on four late tries to reach their century with the luxury of using all seven reserves. Replacement scrumhalf Healey had the honor of bringing up the hundred when he darted down from the back of a ruck, threw a faint dummy and sprinted 50 meters to score near the posts. O'Driscoll scored the 18th and final try on the stroke of fulltime.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
