Lions tour to Australia

Oh I know your bias. Well and truly.

I'd be more confident that the incident wouldn't have been even looked at if Tizzano hadn't put on a diving performance that would make most soccer players blush.

Wouldn't be surprised his actions played in the minds of the ref team.

Probably good for the game that the overexaggerating didn't get rewarded.

Farrell isn't one for wholesale changes, but he can be one for sentimentality; and he'll know what a Lions cap will mean to those players.

Given the unique nature of the Lions, and the fact that the series is won, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a decent chunk of those players come in next week.

Thought that was a super game of rugby, the first half in particular stands up to anything you could hope to watch as a fan.

Obviously delighted the Lions won but can't deny a small part of me wanted to go into next week with it all on the line.

Thought the non-penalty at the death was definitely contentious, personally I thought it was foul play and a penalty but you think back to the 2021 tour the Lions got a mad call at the end to save the drawn tour. It's how it goes.

I don't disagree, there are probably 5 things you could ping at every ruck, but foul play tends to take precedence over technical offences.

This wasn't a ref making a conscious decision to ignore something at a ruck. It was a group of officials reviewing it and ignoring the dangerous entry to the ruck.

Even, if the ref wanted to penalise Tizzano for illegal entry, dangerous play takes precedent over foul play.

No dangerous play.grand clean out.

Aus player should get an Oscar.

I didn't watch the game but was told there was no arms. Was that the case?

And if an Irish guy had made the clear out, we’d be saying it was fine, no foul play.

We all have our biases when it comes to teams we support.

This is why the refs are neutral.

Will you stop. Grand clean out.

If anyone is cited its the Australian player bringing the game into disrepute. No head contact

Agreed - I thought it was a cracking game of rugby, with a real bite and intensity between the two teams.

The Wallabies have plenty of quality rugby players, but they've struggled at half back for a long time IMO. It's a shame for them that Schmidt is moving on, because I think he could continue to improve them quite a bit.

On the final ruck - I feel like across both tests (and most of the tour tbh) the rucks have been an utter mess, with a very lenient approach taken by referees to entries, players not rolling away, teams playing the 9 and just general messiness. That's fine, and I feel it benefitted the Aussies over the two tests, but you can't then turn around and expect the very last ruck of the test match to be refereed differently.

Couple of other items for me that are conspicuously absent from the Aussies whinging about the refereeing performance is how frequently Rob Valetini leads with his elbow or forearm when carrying into contact, and doesn't get called for it. Will Skelton remains a cheap shot merchant - the late hit into Furlong's back in the first half that sparked a scrap was filthy, and, as others have pointed out here, Jake Gordon doesn't score his try if Andrea Piardi doesn't run a perfect blocking line for him making the hole for him to run through.

It's all well and good talking about the very final incident, but the game is decided over 80 mins and the Aussies got the benefit of plenty of decisions.

So you're saying a fan's opinion is of equal weight to a ref's?

That's some leap there.

But I'm sure we've all seen a player being cited after a ref decided it only merited a YC and as fans we've called it a red card offence at the time. Were we incorrect at the time or was the ref incorrect.

It's a leap to suggest that because a fan says a decision could go either way the ref would have the same opinion.

As for your second hypothesis, for every fan that says it's a red card, there'd be an equally myopic fan saying the opposite. Tinted glasses and all that.

I, like you, wanted The Lions to win but unlike you, I think the officials got it wrong so bias doesn't come in to it for me.