15h59 CEST
09/07/2025
British and Irish Lions captain Maro Itoje acknowledged the team still has work to do but believes they are going in the right direction after beating ACT Brumbies.
The Lions battled to a 36-24 victory in Canberra on Wednesday, earning their fourth straight win on Australian soil, with Ollie Chessum, James Lowe, Marcus Smith, Garry Ringrose and Josh van der Flier all scoring the tries.
However, they also conceded four tries at the other end and made another slow start, as Tuaina Taii Tualima crossed with just four minutes on the clock.
Itoje had urged the Lions to "start big" earlier in the week, and he has now instructed his team to be more ruthless in their performances.
"We are happy with the win, we are always happy with winning," Itoje told Sky Sports. "There is loads that we can do better.
"That is the exciting opportunity for us. We have got another tough game on Saturday, and then the real fun begins.
"We will learn from our errors and move forward.
"I think a step forward. Obviously, we left a few tries out there. We probably wanted to be a bit more clinical. We invited a lot of pressure back on ourselves. We want to be a bit more ruthless in that regard."
The Lions also suffered a potential setback as Ben Kinghorn was forced off in the first half with a knee injury.
Head coach Andy Farrell is not sure of the extent of the injury yet, and he will be hoping not to see another withdrawal, having already lost Tomos Williams and Elliot Daly on the tour.
"I was just speaking to him. He said somebody landed on his knee, and he was just feeling something. He's walking around, so hopefully it's not too serious," Farrell told Sky Sports.
On the game itself, he added: "It was the same as the other games, there was some good stuff, especially in the first half. There was some nice, flowing attacking play that was played at a good tempo.
"On the flip side, we kept them in the game. We dominated field position, but we kept them in with a sniff, especially when you get over the line three times and don't convert them.
"Congratulations to the Brumbies, they came out of the blocks and stayed in the fight until the last minute."