British and Irish Lions vs Crusaders as it happened: Owen Farrell inspires Lions to impressive defensive win
Follow the latest as it happened from AMI Stadium in Christchurch
The British and Irish Lions face the Super Rugby leaders the Canterbury Crusaders in the third match of their tour of New Zealand, with Warren Gatland’s squad looking to get back to winning ways after losing to the Blues last time out. Follow the latest here.
- Crusaders vs the British and Irish Lions kicks off at 19:35 local time [08:35 BST]
- Sam Warburton ruled out with ankle injury
- Alun Wyn Jones captain the Lions in Warburton’s absence
- Conor Murray and Owen Farrell both make first starts
- Sean O’Brien, Jonathan Davies and George North make first appearances
Follow the live action below...
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What TV channel is it on?
The match will be shown live on Sky Sports 1 from 08:00 BST.
Teams
Crusaders: Israel Dagg; Seta Tamanivalu; Jack Goodhue, David Havili, George Bridge; Richie Mo’unga, Bryn Hall; Joe Moody, Codie Taylor, Owen Franks; Luke Romano, Sam Whitelock; Heiden Bedwell-Curtis, Matt Todd; Jordan Taufua.
Replacements: Ben Funnell, Wyatt Crockett, Michael Alaalatoa, Quinten Strange, Jed Brown, Mitchell Drummond, Mitchell Hunt, Tim Bateman.
British and Irish Lions: Stuart Hogg; George North, Jonathan Davies, Ben Te’o, Liam Williams; Owen Farrell, Conor Murray; Mako Vunipola, Jamie George, Tadhg Furlong; Alun Wyn Jones, George Kruis; Peter O’Mahony, Sean O’Brien, Taulupe Faletau
Replacements: Ken Owens, Jack McGrath. Dan Cole, Maro Itoje, CJ Stander, Rhys Webb, Jonathan Sexton, Anthony Watson.
68 mins: That's a good run from Sexton and now Te'o and Williams and the Lions now find themselves a metre out! They're pushing for the line! They go wide and North touches it back in to Watson. Still nothing. And now the Lions are pinged for crossing. We go back to an earlier penalty.
70 mins: Farrell takes the three points from underneath the posts and the Lions lead 12-3 now. Should have had seven there, though.
74 mins: Wonderful turnover from Sexton and Faletau there and they're surrounded by their teammates who know how big that was.
78 mins: This has been a brilliant defensive performance from the Lions today - you feel if they get the attack to match it then they could give the All Blacks a real challenge.
79 mins: This will be the first defeat of the season for the Crusaders having swept aside every Australian, South African and Kiwi side put in front of them so far.
FULL TIME: Crusaders 3 British and Irish Lions 12
Farrell thumps the ball into touch and that is that! A fantastic performance from the Lions, their best of the tour so far. The Crusaders were put under pressure from the first minute to the last.
By my counting, at least 10 of these players will be starting the first Test against the All Blacks, with Farrell, Murray, Te'o, Vunipola, Faletau and Sexton - when he came off the bench - impressing in particular.
There were nine turnovers from the Lions in total, but four of them came from George North. If you though he was quite in an attacking sense, then just take a look at the work he got through defensively. He didn't let anything past him today and the stats back that up.
This was an important win psychologically more than anything else for the Lions. Back-to-back defeats would have been disastrous this early in the tour but now they will once again believe they can beat the All Blacks.
Need a recap on what happened in Christchurch this morning? Take a read of Jack de Menezes' match report from New Zealand:
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