British Lions begin tour with comprehensive victory but win marred by Williams injury

The British & Irish Lions put the Western Force to the sword with a powerful second-half performance to claim a 54-7 victory in Perth.

Andy Farrell's side struggled at times during the first half as the home side put them under intense pressure up-front but they weathered the storm to score eight tries to get this tour up and running. The only negative was an injury to Wales scrum-half Tomos Williams who limped off early in the second half.

Williams scored a brace of tries in what was an excellent individual performance while Elliot Daly (twice), Dan Sheehan, Joe McCarthy, Garry Ringrose and Alex Mitchell also crossed the line.

Wallabies number nine Nic White scored the only try for Western Force.

The Lions made the perfect start when a well-timed cross-kick by Russell found Sheehan on the edge. Sheehan tapped the ball back to James Lowe who ghosted towards the touchline before his out of the back door offload found the Ireland hooker for the opening try with Russell adding the extras.

But this was far from one-way traffic as the Force hit back with a period of intense pressure. The home side's pack were extremely physical with their forwards making post-contact metres and the tip-on passes from the point of contact causing the Lions problems.

It was former Exeter Chiefs scrum-half White who claimed the first try for the Force as he sneaked underneath the Lions defence to score with Donaldson converting.

The Lions only conceded five penalties in 80 minutes against Argentina but they coughed up four in 10 minutes in Perth to put themselves under the cosh.

The Force continued to enjoy possession in the Lions' 22 and turned down three kickable penalties to go for the corner but the Lions were eventually saved by giant second-row