British and Irish Lions: 'Major concerns' highlighted against Brumbies offer Australia fresh optimism for Test series
Former Lions Dan Biggar and Sam Warburton analyse the weaknesses exploited by the Brumbies that could give Australia cause for optimism in the Test series; watch every game of 2025 Lions tour - including all three Tests against the Wallabies - live on Sky Sports
Wednesday 9 July 2025 16:53, UK
The British and Irish Lions laboured to a fourth victory in Australia over the Brumbies that once again highlighted shortcomings for the Wallabies to exploit in the looming Test series, according to Dan Biggar and Sam Warburton.
The Lions ran in five tries to the Brumbies' four in a 36-24 victory in Canberra but failed to produce the statement performance 10 days out from the first Test against the Wallabies as familiar flaws were exposed despite Andy Farrell fielding his strongest side of the tour.
The team that took to the field was billed as the clearest indication yet of what Farrell intends to unleash on the Wallabies, but it lacked cohesion and was ultimately reliant on individual quality to get over the line.
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Despite being weakened by the absence of eight Australia internationals, the Brumbies took the game to the Lions at the breakdown, exploiting a weakness that has persisted throughout the tourists' time Down Under to counter their positive attacking display.
Of the 11 penalties conceded by the Lions, six came at the breakdown, while the Brumbies ended the game with three breakdown steals, one of which from lock Cadeyrn Neville led directly to Corey Toole scoring the Super Rugby club's second try.
The Brumbies not only forced errors from the Lions but exploited them, and two-time Lions fly-half Biggar believes a clear blueprint has been laid in front of Joe Schmidt to steer the Wallabies into the Test series.
"It was a mixed performance - much like the tour overall," Biggar reflected. "Where the Lions are really struggling, and what should be a major concern, is the breakdown. They're conceding too many penalties there, and handling errors are compounding the issue."
He continued: "A lot of those turnover penalties are actually coming off some promising moments - good collisions, half-breaks - but the risk-reward balance at the breakdown just isn't right.
"In the Test matches, especially against the Wallabies, the Lions won't get away with that. They need to be smarter: get players over the ball, stop gambling, resource the ruck properly, and build through phases. That's when things will start to open up."
Ahead of the first Test on July 19 - live on Sky Sports - Biggar questioned whether the Lions' current level of performance was enough.
"Would Australia be worried after watching that? Does that get the job done next Saturday? I'm not sure," Biggar said. "The Lions have beaten what's in front of them, but they haven't blown teams away.
"Joe Schmidt will have taken a fair bit away from that game. Knowing the players and the coaches, there are definitely areas he'll want to get his teeth into before next weekend."
'Scrum, line-out, breakdown' - where Wallabies will target Lions
Two-time British and Irish Lions captain - including on the victorious 2013 tour of Australia - Warburton believed the Brumbies game highlighted three areas for the Wallabies to target.
"Imagine you're an Australian player sat down watching that," Warburton explained. "You would think that every team that goes at the Lions at the breakdown has success, really slowing them down and stopping their attacking game going.
"The Aussies will also be thinking that while the Lions have been very dominant in the scrums, they have been scrummaging against a lot of players who don't have international experience, so that has to be taken with a pinch of salt.
"The Lions are going to be scrummaging against a much different Australia team that will be thinking, 'let's take their scrum away from them, let's take their attacking breakdown away from them, and let's really challenge their line-out'.
"Two of those are going to be headaches the Lions haven't experienced yet, so if you're Australia you'll be thinking you can really disrupt the game plan and continuity the Lions want at breakdown, scrum and line-out to stop them getting any momentum."
'Urgency needs to improve' - Sheehan fronts up to breakdown issue
Members of the Lions squad were well aware of the flaws in their performance, with fly-half Finn Russell and hooker Dan Sheehan both addressing work needed to be done to improve their breakdown performance.
"We definitely need to work on our breakdown, the Brumbies got good purchase out of our breakdown which is a carry-on from last Saturday," Sheehan told Sky Sports. "We will have to look at that.
"Our urgency [needs to improve], the first two people in need to do a better job. Obviously teams are going to go after it, but we need to control what we can control, and that's the first two in doing a better job."
British and Irish Lions tour of Australia on Sky Sports
Sky Sports will exclusively show the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, with all three Tests against the Wallabies and six warm-up matches to be shown exclusively live.
