Records fall as Lions open with massive win

By CHRIS HEWETT

PERTH - The Lions opened their 10-match invasion of Australia last night with a 116-10 thrashing of West Australia.

If Graham Henry, the tourists' head coach, knew next to nothing about his four-nation mixture going into the game, he did not know much more by the end of it. The Lions need a real match, and badly.

The last sportsmen to clock up centuries at the WACA without breaking sweat were Rodney Marsh and John Inverarity -­ understandable, since they were outstanding cricketers plying their trade on a Test cricket ground.

Few expected such celebrated non-batsmen as Scott Quinnell, Dan Luger and a fistful of others to achieve something similar between tea and stumps.

If the cricket score at close of play seemed appropriate to the surroundings, it was wholly inappropriate in Lions terms.

The visitors scored a record 18 tries in clocking up a record three-figure total in the course of inflicting a record margin of superiority on their bemused opponents. Enthralling, it was not.

Which is not to say that the Lions did not play with a degree of exuberance and ruthlessness that whetted the appetite for the sterner challenges awaiting them over the next five weeks.

As Henry pointed out: "Eighteen tries? That's a lot of scoring. We lost our structure at times, and I felt we needed more unselfish running off the ball to free up space. But hell, you have to take some positives from that performance."

Aware that the alleged contest was little more than a semi-opposed training run, he awarded his side "six out of 10".

Seven would have been fairer, if only in acknowledgement of the concentration and fitness levels required to attack from minute one to minute 80.

Quinnell, who thundered through the flimsy barricades like a teacher playing full tilt in an under-11s house match, looked muscular and direct from the base of the scrum.

The locks, Danny Grewcock and Malcolm O'Kelly, operated in a different stratosphere to their opponents; Will Greenwood complicated Henry's midfield equation by playing out of his socks; Dan Luger's straight-line speed would not have disgraced the grid at Monaco.

But it was too easy for words and barely worthy of serious analysis.

Lions parties have hit the ground running before: 12 years ago, when the best of Britain and Ireland last visited Australia, they put 44 points on the same opponents in the same city.

Ciaran Fitzgerald's 1983 vintage began their tour of New Zealand with a 47-pointer against Wanganui. Early in the 1974 schedule, Willie-John McBride's pride rattled up 97 points against the South Western Districts of Springbok country.

However, a three-figure tally did nothing to enhance the Lions tradition.

Trefor Thomas, the Western Australia captain, had hoped for a "respectable" defeat of between 40 and 50. As it turned out, the Lions had 57 on the board by halftime.

Quinnell scored the first of his three tries as early as the third minute, brushing aside the full-time carpenter Mark Gardiner as if he were ... well, a full-time carpenter, as opposed to a full-time rugby player.

Rob Howley dummied over six minutes later, Luger sprinted clear five minutes after that. It was mind-numbingly processional. Laughably, the longest the Lions went without scoring a try was a 10-minute spell midway through the first period.

"Sure, the game was what it was," shrugged Keith Wood, who might have preferred a stronger brew with which to toast his first match as Lions captain.

"I don't know that I'd put colossal significance on what happened out there, because I don't expect for a second that the games ahead of us will be as easy is that one."

Phil Greening's torn medial ligament, serious enough to leave the England hooker hobbling around on crutches, means Wood's continued well-being is more imperative than ever.

Gordon Bulloch of Scotland, unlucky not to have been selected in the first place, joins the party in Townsville later today, and will stay for the whole ride, even if Greening shows signs of recovery over the next few days. The likelihood must be that Greening will fly home at the weekend.

Happily, Iain Balshaw is expected to shake off the effects of his latest injury in time to face Queensland in Brisbane next Saturday.

Despite Brian O'Driscoll's encouraging first outing at fullback, the Bath man is the more likely starter come Test time, hence the concern over his premature departure yesterday.

Balshaw suffered what appeared to be a recurrence of a recent shoulder injury as he gallivanted clear for a second try off the bench in the final quarter, but the Lions management diagnosed his problem as a blow to the sternum.

"Iain feels able to laugh a little, which is a good sign given that he's such a serious young man," reported Wood.

Quite whether the 20,695 spectators were laughing after paying good money to watch a mismatch is a moot point. If the Lions ever play an amateur side again, it will be too soon.

British and Irish Lions 116 (S. Quinnell 3, D. Luger 3, R. Howley 2, N. Back 2, I. Balshaw 2, W. Greenwood, D. Grewcock, M. Taylor, S. Taylor, A. Healey, B. O'Driscoll tries; R. O'Gara 13 con)

Western Australia 10 (B. Becroft, R. Barugh tries)

Halftime: 57-0.

- INDEPENDENT