Dubai: Australia beat the British and Irish Lions 16-15 in another enthralling epic on Saturday to level the series 1-1 after Leigh Halfpenny suffered the same cruel fate that befell Kurtley Beale in Brisbane a week ago.
Though he kept his footing, the Welsh full-back’s 82nd-minute penalty attempt fell short of the uprights with the last kick of the game inside the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne.
The Wallabies now take the momentum into next Saturday’s series decider in Sydney, where they will be looking to recreate the 2001 series turnaround that saw them prevail despite a losing start.
A 75th-minute try from Adam Ashley-Cooper and an unflappable kicking performance from the returning Christian Leali’ifano, who added 11 points to the Wallabies’ total, took Australia to a hard-fought win.
Fifteen points from Halfpenny’s boot weren’t enough for the Lions to overcome a much-improved defensive display from Australia in a dramatic clash that once again went down to the wire.
Lions head coach Warren Gatland, while praising Australia’s never-say-die atutude, said his side came off second best because they didn’t use the ball well enough.
“It’s just about game management. That’s what Test match rugby is all about. A couple of crucial line-outs, a couple of crucial turnovers and even when they made mistakes and the ref said ‘advantage over’, we haven’t made the most of it,” he said.
“We were pretty comfortable at half-time but they never gave up and it went their way. We weren’t smart enough and didn’t look after the ball well enough.”
As predicted, the breakdown was crucial from the outset. Sam Warburton flexed his muscles early and won the Lions a penalty just inside the Australian half, from which Halfpenny’s attempt fell despairingly short.
But the Lions held the initial impetus in the pack, with Jamie Heaslip and Dan Lydiate following their captain’s example by sending the Australians’ defensive line reeling and leaking penalties early on.
Halfpenny’s early woodwork miss didn’t faze him mentally and the Welsh fullback slotted a three-pointer just before the ten-minute mark to take the Lions into a deserved 3-0 lead.
But the Australian scrum continued their dominance from the end of the first Test. Gatland’s decision to start Mako Vunipola, seen as a gamble because of the Saracens player’s fallibility in the scrum, was the target of the Australian front row.
First-choice kicker Leali’ifano converted two penalties conceded by the Lions at the set-piece to take Australia into the lead at 6-3.
But Vunipola gained some much-needed redemption at the next two scrums, earning his side penalties — one against the head — which Halfpenny slotted with aplomb.
An over-zealous Lydiate then gifted an unwaveringly accurate Leali’ifano another three points before Halfpenny, equally unerring from the kicking tee, responded with another Lions penalty just before the close of the half.
In a tight first-half starkly different from the free-flowing running game a week ago in Brisbane, thanks largely to a change in strategy from the Wallabies, a see-sawing scoreboard took the Lions into the break three points to the good at 12-9.
A frantic second half, which remained scoreless for 20 minutes, saw the image of the series so far with George North, the Lions’ star from last week, picking up his 16-stone opposite number Israel Folau while carrying the ball.
But the deadlock was broken when the Lions packed roared into a scrum, with replacement front row Dan Cole making amends for his lacklustre outing last week.
The Leicester prop was instrumental in shunting the Wallabies pack backwards and winning a vital penalty from which Halfpenny, the Lion with the golden boot, clouted the ball over the posts from 46 metres out to give the Lions a six-point buffer at 15-9 with only the last quarter left for Australia to save the series and the Gold jerseys from public ignominy.
Desperately chasing the game, Australia added width to their attacking play to bring Folau and Beale more into the fray. Wave after wave of Wallaby pressure finally resulted in a crucial try from centre Ashley-Cooper, who picked an unstoppable line seven metres out to ignite the home contingent in Melbourne.
Leali’ifano, who was taken from the turf injured in the Suncorp Stadium and unable to assume kicking duties last week, kept his nerve under excruciating pressure to cooly convert the try from a tight angle on the left touchline to take the Australians into one-point lead at 16-15.
But there was one final twist worthy of the magnitude of the occasion. In an incredibly ironic quirk of fate, the Lions won a penalty just inside their own half with 81 minutes played. Halfpenny, like Beale last week, had a last-minute penalty to win the game.
But, just like Beale in Brisbane, the Welshman’s effort fell agonisingly short of the uprights and the images of the dejected Australian being helped from the pitch last week were this week transformed into a demoralised Lions player who had the opportunity to win the series without offering the Australians the chance to come back.
As it stands, it is all to play for in Sydney after a heroic effort from the Wallabies.