Of all people, Alex Corbisiero got the Lions going with a try in the second minute.
The Lions then had a serious wobble in the middle of the match but concluded rampantly with a three-try burst by Jonathan Sexton, George North and Jamie Roberts that stretched credulity.
Leigh Halfpenny was a fantastic man of the match, partly for his 21 points but at least as much for the brilliance of his full-back play, its absolute security and astonishing, try-making inventiveness in helping create two of the Lions’ four tries.
His own records, for points in a Lions series and Lions tour, were emulated by the Lions collectively.
Forty-one points were, by a long way, the most the Lions had scored in a Test, the margin their second widest. Small wonder he was also man of the series.
Gatland knew he had gambled by contentiously leaving out Brian O’Driscoll.
But his counterpart Robbie Deans’ own gamble, the recall of flanker George Smith for his 111th Test four years after his 110th, backfired in that Smith had no discernible effect.
Roberts, in tandem with Jonathan Davies, moved from inside centre instead of O’Driscoll, gave Gatland precisely what he wanted to bring to the Lions – the ‘Warrenball’ that gave Wales the Six Nations title.
But the really important return was made by Corbisiero from his calf injury.
After the peculiar chronology of the scrums last Saturday, with the Lions in dire trouble at the outset but stabilising later, the reintroduction of the English prop was critical.
Somehow, Will Genia dropped the kick-off and the try Corbisiero then scored in 78 seconds was a sort of bonus.
The Lions won a free-kick at the very first scrum and Mike Phillips’ quick tap had the Wallabies retreating faster than they ever had in the second Test.
When Tommy Bowe was hauled down, the advancing Lions were able to put it through another four phases, with Sean O’Brien and Alun Wyn Jones brought up short before Corbisiero, receiving from Phillips, rolled over the line.
Halfpenny’s easy conversion was a formality and by half-time he had already surpassed Neil Jenkins’ Lions series record of 41 points against the Springboks in 1997.
Jenkins is now Halfpenny’s kicking coach.
With Corbisiero, the Lions made such a mess of Australia’s scrum that in the end Ben Alexander was sent to the sin-bin for persistent infringement and, when his 10 minutes in the cooler expired, Deans left Sekope Kepu on the field.
The Lions were culpable, though, in failing to exploit Alexander’s absence.
Their forwards pounded into the Wallabies in an attempt to use their numerical advantage, but a move of 27 phases ended tamely when Sexton’s drop shot was inches wide.
Article source: http://www.express.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/412829/Bowe-motivated-by-O-Driscoll-presence
Walloping of the Wallabies: Leigh Halfpenny steers Lions home
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