Andy Farrell reacts to Tom Curry masterclass after being criticised for starting him

Lions boss Andy Farrell reckoned Tom Curry proved the doubters wrong and him right after his stand-out performance in the 27-19 win over the Wallabies. Farrell was criticised for picking the England flanker, who has been slightly off the pace on this tour ahead of Wales' Jac Morgan. But Farrell always knew Curry, a Lion in South Africa in 2021, would deliver and the Sale man did in spades with a turbo-charged performance.

Tadhg Beirne, another marginal inclusion over Ollie Chessum, also lived up to the head coach's faith but Farrell reckons it was never in doubt. He said: "For those who know him and know Tom's character, that was always going to happen. We said during the week about big game players and Tom massively fits into that bracket.

"You see it time and time again. When it really matters, big game players, that's what they do, they turn up, they trust themselves to be able to perform on the big stage. It's not an easy thing to do, I suppose it comes with a little bit of experience and they deliver it again.

"We have conversations about why do you think you're selected and what is it that you're going to bring to the team performance and to a man they're unbelievably honest. And they delivered. Tom put in some really nice shots defensively and Tadhg set the tone and I don't think it stopped there, it carried on the same the whole game."

The tourists have a chance to clinch the series in Melbourne next week but Farrell fears an Aussie backlash. They had just one game to prepare for this Test, a game with Fiji two weeks and took a half to get into their stride.

Farrell added: "They'll be much better because of that, but also because of what it means to them and how proud they are. It'll mean the world to them. We need to make sure we are ready for them to be at their best. I suppose it will take a better performance than what we've shown today to make sure we get a win next week."

"Today was a high intensity game," said skipper Maro Itoje. "Next week will be a higher intensity game, so the challenge for us is to raise ourselves, raise our game and performance because we know Australia definitely will do that. We want to win the Test series and that's what the opportunity is next week, and we only do that by getting better."