Published in the Irish Examiner on Saturday, June 29th 2013 (no link available).

In 27 Lions tours the Lions have won the first test 11 times and from there they’ve won the series six times. But the last time the Lions won the first two tests of a series? That’s thirty-nine years ago in 1974 when they took the first three games from South Africa before drawing the fourth.

As pointed out by Infostrada Sports, when he stepped onto the field for the first test Brian O’Driscoll equalled Willie John McBride for the longest Lions test career with 4,375 days since his first Lions test match. As long as he avoids a last-minute withdrawal, today O’Driscoll will claim the record for his own. And the potential for O’Driscoll records doesn’t end there; if the great centre scores a try in the second or third test the 34 year old will become the Lions’ oldest ever try scorer, a record that has stood firm since 1891 when Scottish forward and tour captain Bill MacLagan scored against South Africa at a sprightly 33 years and 153 days.

Welsh prop Adam Jones had two carries for two metres in the first test, tripling his tour carrying stats. Jones was obviously feeling in particularly fine attacking fettle last weekend because he also threw in an offload, something he only did once in the entire 2012/13 season.

Australia’s miserable kicking performance from the first test – one conversion from two attempts and three of seven penalties – was the difference between their eventual loss and at least a draw. Leigh Halfpenny’s 5 from 6 dropped his kicking success rate from 96% to 93% with kicking coach Neil Jenkins surely not too enraged by his star pupil doubling his number of tour misses.

In his 211 minutes of play on tour Ben Youngs has attempted just 14 tackles. Of the 26 Lions who have played at least that many minutes only Leigh Halfpenny (10) and George North (11), back-three dwellers both, have attempted fewer.

Australia losing two tests in a row isn’t a remarkably uncommon thing. However, if you take the All Blacks out of the equation two consecutive Wallaby defeats is a much rarer event. The last time Australia lost two consecutive tests without at least one loss being to New Zealand was in 2005 with losses away from home to France and England culminating a seven match losing streak. But the last time Australia lost two consecutive tests on home soil without at least one loss being to the men of the silver fern? The 1989 Lions, and before that it’s back to Ireland’s two test wins in 1979 with a team featuring Ollie Campbell and Mike Gibson.

Jonathan Sexton hasn’t given up a penalty or a turnover so far on tour and has tackled at a 96% success rate. Reserve fly-half Owen Farrell has given up seven turnovers along with a tour-high nine missed tackles for a 73% success rate. 
Credit: all player stats are courtesy of Opta.