Western Australia 10 British and Irish Lions 116
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| Brian O'Driscoll breaks through a ragged Western Australia defence during the Lions rout (© Allsport) |
08/06/01: The Lions opened their tour of Australia with a crushing 116-10 victory over Western Australia, setting various records along the way but getting little useful practice for the more difficult matches ahead.
The Lions completely outclassed their part-time opponents, racing in 18 tries to post their biggest ever total, eclipsing the 97-0 hammering of New Zealand's South West Districts in 1974.
Welsh No.8 Scott Quinnell and England winger Dan Luger both scored hat-tricks while Rob Howley, Neil Back and Iain Balshaw got two each.
Brian O’Driscoll, who moved from full-back to centre after half-time, scored a try on his debut withWill Greenwood, Danny Grewcock, Mark Taylor, Simon Taylor, Austin Healy also breaching the Australian line.
Out-half Ronan O'Gara, also making his Lions debut, gave a solid display, kicking 13 conversions for a personal haul of 26 points.
The Lions 18 tries was the most they had ever scored in a single match, beating the previous record of 16 set against Western Australia in 1930 and twice equalled since then.
Despite leaving some stars on the bench, the Lions were always far too organised and powerful for their amateur opponents.
They scored their first try of the tour after just two minutes and 13 seconds when Quinnell charged on to a short pass and did not let up for the rest of the match.
Scoring at better than a point a minute, they ran in nine first half tries to lead 57-0 at the break and added another nine after the interval to reach their hundred on the traditional home of West Australian cricket better known for the deeds of Dennis Lillee and Rodney Marsh than touring rugby players.
The gap in class between the teams was obvious from the outset when stand-in captain Keith Wood charged on to the field with the Lions mascot tucked under his arms then turned to watch the home team jogging slowly behind.
While the Lions were slick with the ball in hand and scored some enterprising tries, most of their scores were soft and the result of poor defence rather than great attack.
To their credit, the locals did offer some brief resistance in the second half and were rewarded with tries to winger Brent Becroft and replacement scrumhalf Robbie Barugh, both in the right corner.
But the Lions had the last say, piling on four late tries to reach their century with the luxury of using all seven reserves.
O'Driscoll dived over from close range to score the 18th and final try on the stroke of full-time.
Afterwards, skipper Keith Wood was keen to play down the significance of the massive score.
"We didn't expect that number of points but that was pretty good and we're happy enough.
"We're not bouncing off the walls. I think you have to be realistic, we were playing what was mostly an amateur side so you would expect to win and win well.
"But we are happy, we scored a lot of tries, we did a lot of things well although we still have an awful lot of tinkering to do obviously."
He also conceded the team were "very annoyed" about the two tries Western Australia scored.
"It give us something to work on, we know we have to work on our defence," he said..