ANDY FARRELL’S thunderstruck Lions saw their dreams of a Wallaby whitewash go down the drain in a deluge down under.
On a night of drama in Sydney play was suspended for more than 35 minutes just after the break because of lightning strikes in the local area.
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And the tourists were hit with a triple strike of bad luck before that with skipper Maro Itoje, wing Tommy Freeman and lock James Ryan all out of the game before the 42-minute mark.
The first 20 rows of fans around the bowl were told to evacuate to the covered concourse and the sides put their feet up in the dressing room.
But when the sides came back out it was the Aussies who stormed home with tries from Max Jorgensen and Tate McDermott to get a consolation win.
The Lions were struggling to keep their heads above water as the rain bucketed down and were trailing 8-0 at the break with the Wallabies dominating territory and possession.
The hosts scored their opening try on seven minutes when Joseph Suaalii, the ARU’s five-million dollar man, produced a no-look pass that mugged off the Lions defence and put wing Dylan Pietsch over for his first Test try.
Aussie lock Will Skelton, who was a man on a mission again, was the instigator of the first decent fight of the series when he whacked into Tom Curry and it all went off.
Dan Sheehan, Russell, Aussie scrum-half Nic White and Lions lock Ryan all involved in the rough stuff.
Ryan’s collision with Will Skelton even caused a mass brawl between the two sets of players.
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Then Itoje was taken off and the Aussies extended their lead thanks to a Tom Lynagh penalty.
But the Aussie fly-half did not last much longer after he was taken out by Ireland hooker Sheehan, who was lucky not to get red carded after crashing into Lynagh’s skull.
Then Freeman, an injury scare before the game, was taken off after copping a stray knee on the nose and with blood streaming down his face.
Enter Owen Farrell to predicable boos with Huw Jones shunted out to the wing and Faz coming in at inside centre.
It got worse for the Lions after the break when lock James Ryan was taken off after he got an accidental knee in the head from Skelton just before the lightning arrived.
When play resumed Aussie arch poacher Jorgensen scooted over after picking up a loose ball after Blair Kinghorn went missing in defence and McDermott’s score finished after Jac Morgan’s popular score for the tourists.
Will Stuart got another one at the death but it was too little too late with the game ending 22-12.
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