SYDNEY :The British & Irish Lions stuttered to an unconvincing 21-10 victory over a dogged New South Wales Waratahs side on Saturday, taking a step backwards with an error-prone performance on the third leg of their tour of Australia.
Centre Huw Jones crossed twice in the first half and Alex Mitchell added another try early in the second but the Lions were held scoreless for the final 26 minutes of a contest coach Andy Farrell will quickly want to forget.
"It was a bit scrappy but we got there in the end, plenty still to work on," said Mitchell.
"A few things clicked but a few things were off."
The Waratahs, roared on by the majority of a crowd of 40,568, scored tries through Darby Lancaster and Ethan Dobbins and trailed by only four points early in the second half.
The Super Rugby side showed the Wallabies the way for the three-test series in late July and August with an uncompromising physicality all over the park that knocked the Lions off their stride.
"Super proud, super proud," said Waratahs skipper Hugh Sinclair.
"We showed up, it was scrappy but the Lions will not have been pleased with that."
The Lions were looking for another step up after a 52-12 win over Queensland Reds on Wednesday and opening their account with a 54-7 victory over Western Force.
It looked on the cards when they won a penalty off the first scrum and Jones cut through the defence for the first score under the posts in the 12th minute.
The Waratahs were in no mood to lie down, however, and they laid siege to the Lions line approaching the half-hour mark with Charlie Gamble fighting his way over to touch down only to have the score called back for obstruction.
The Lions went back up the other end for Jones to score his second try by barging through
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