The Lions gaffes that must be eradicated in Australia
Tom Curry and Fin Smith joined Andy Farrell, their British and Irish Lions head coach, in delivering scathing assessments of Friday evening's 28-24 loss to Argentina, stressing that wastefulness cannot continue in Australia.
The Lions' defeat was characterised by inaccurate offloads that coughed up possession and Farrell slammed his team's 'error rate' in Dublin, suggesting that they 'lost enough ball for a full tour'.
Curry, who played 80 minutes at blindside flanker, was particularly frustrated. 'The biggest point is that we need to be more clinical with the ball,' he said.
'The exciting thing is that we have got people in position, people are running, but, f---, we can't score points if we are dropping it and giving it away that easily. That comes first and foremost.'
"Not acceptable... dissapointed" ‼️
Andy Farrell's scathing assessment of the Lions defeat 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/dfb0S8Tx61
— Sky Sports (@SkySports) June 20, 2025
Like Farrell, the 27-year-old refused to point to a lack of familiarity – either between players or with a new attacking system – as justification. On his second Lions tour to follow 2021, Curry is hoping to eradicate sloppiness as quickly as possible with the Test series set to get under way on July 19.
'I have been on these things before and you can wait until Monday before you say this stuff, but you can get to the sixth week and still make the same excuse,' he added.
'Six weeks is not a long time so we can't make that excuse the whole way through [the tour]. We nipped that in the bud straight away. We need to take personal responsibility for our own performances and how excited we get on the ball.
'That is the really annoying thing, because on the flip side it's really exciting because we do have our hands on the ball and are in great spots. But come on, we need to take personal responsibility when we have it.'
Forcing passes out of contact became a recurring and debilitating feature of the Lions performance. On the half-hour mark, Tommy Freeman arced off his wing behind the run of Bundee Aki and freed his arms, only for Sione Tuipulotu to drop a deft pass:
Freeman should not shoulder all the blame for this, given he had a clear line of sight to Tuipulotu and lifted the ball into the path of his centre. It could probably be categorised as a constructive mistake. Around four minutes later, though, came a riskier effort.
Having roamed across from the Lions' right wing and stepped up at first receiver, Freeman fixed two defenders and attempted to flip the ball to Marcus Smith. The latter seemed to call for a pass, but has overrun his team-mate by the time the ball is released:
Other mix-ups in the second half were even less excusable and will have caused Farrell even more angst. Luke Cowan-Dickie spun through a tackle but was intercepted by Lucio Cinti as he aimed to link up with Fin Smith:
Tadhg Furlong made ground around the fringes of a ruck before an aimless offload went to Gonzalo García, the Argentina scrum-half:
Tuipulotu had a tumbling pass snaffled by Tomás Albornoz as well, and Curry admitted that the Lions had gone against the principles Farrell had outlined in training.
'Andy's been hot on [how] you've got to see your pass and know someone is there,' he said. 'There were key moments today when that didn't happen. That's what I'm saying – we can't say it in training and not do it in a game.'
Successful offloads, such as one from Marcus Smith to Freeman in the first half as well as the interplay between Tuipulotu and Fin Smith that led to Aki's try, can carve open defences. As he urges greater caution, Farrell will not want to stifle creativity.
The line-out was another scruffy area for the Lions and Curry pinpointed a gaffe with nine minutes remaining – when Ronan Kelleher's throw sailed over the top without the Lions even hoisting a jumper into the air – as another costly mistake.
'It's either a body language thing or we didn't communicate to the hooker well enough,' he explained. 'It's one of those two.'
After spending 80 minutes at fly-half, Fin Smith was equally disheartened.
'I'm gutted, pretty deflated,' he said. 'It's probably not how I saw my first Lions cap going. I'm sure once I take the emotion out of it, the sun will come up tomorrow and we'll review it. Hopefully we can take stuff out of it but, yeah, it's incredibly disappointing.'
Amid encouraging flashes, the Lions suffered from clunky moments in which a lack of cohesion derailed them. One such lapse occurred in the 76th minute after a scrum had earned the Lions a penalty advantage.
Fin Smith fed Tuipulotu and wrapped around his centre, only for a pull-back pass to drop on to the turf:
The Lions' hope is that execution matches up with their ambition and Fin Smith admitted that he might have reviewed the footage as soon as the early hours of Saturday morning.
'We don't feel too far away but I might watch that back and it will feel miles away,' said the Northampton Saints playmaker. 'We're not where we need to be, which is the main thing.'
'I'm sure it's not the first time the Lions have not played particularly well in their first outing,' Smith added.
'The main thing is how quickly we can respond and how quickly we can stop feeling sorry for ourselves. We need to get back on the training pitch and get better as quickly as possible.'
Farrell's message has been for the tourists to refrain from moping or sulking, even if the long-haul flight to Perth, where the Lions face Western Force on Saturday in their first game on Australian soil, will present ample opportunity to study video clips of hasty offloads and other technical hitches.
As the Lions all acknowledge, Argentina have handed them a wake-up call. Actions, not words, are required to regain impetus.
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