Warren Gatland not slap-happy with Owen Farrell

“That’s what we will stress to the players. We might find a similar situation in Australia and have to make sure we don’t react to it.”

“Hit-out” was not the most felicitous expression in this analysis. But Gatland knows that on another occasion, though the player insisted he never feared such a punishment, Farrell may have joined Brits in the cooler. The effect in a Test against the Wallabies is awful to contemplate.

Otherwise, Gatland was well satisfied. Beyond the bother, this was comfortably the best start of the past three Lions tours, even if it did come against opposition high on quality but, being on vacation, low on motivation.

Barbarians captain Sergio Parisse described his team as “lazy”.

And even he was caught up in the non-tackling malaise explained, but not excused, by the heat and humidity, making it more akin to the Baa-Baas’ drubbing by England than the stern test promised.

Still, in creating their eight tries, including two each by Mike Phillips and Alex Cuthbert, the Lions wielded both rapier and bludgeon and as they learnt to deal with the tropical sauna to which they were inexcusably subjected, they got better and better.

Farrell, occasionally fumbling, experienced most difficulty in dealing with a ball made impossibly slippery by the gallons of sweat infusing each player’s jersey and lathering each player’s hands in 91-degree temperatures and humidity touching 90 per cent.

With Jonathan Sexton replacing him during the second half, Farrell had another reminder – that there are only two fly-halves on this tour and Sexton is the one who gets a backline moving even if his goal-kicking here was inferior to Farrell’s.

“I made too many mistakes at times and felt I could have done better, but overall I was pretty pleased,” said Farrell.

This was both candid and omitted the reasonable mitigation of the conditions. But when Sexton faces Western Force on Wednesday, the NoSHrS10 jersey will be his to claim.

Lions – Tries: Phillips (2), Cuthbert (2), O’Connell, Davies, Lydiate, AW Jones. Cons: Farrell (3), Sexton (2). Pens: Farrell (3).

Barbarians – Try: Fotuali’i. Pen: Daly.

Article source: http://www.nwemail.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/rare-barrow-rugby-picture-from-1895-uncovered-1.1059684?referrerPath=home

Warren Gatland not slap-happy with Owen Farrell