JACK Nowell was in full flow for the Lions, with the Exeter and England wing grabbing two of the four tries scored against an outgunned Chiefs outfit four days before the start of the Test series.
The Chiefs' FMG Stadium fortress is close to the Waikato River that carves through Hamilton – Waikato means “flowing water” in Maori – but the local franchise was swept away in the second half by a Lions backline attack which, for the first time on tour, flooded through a Kiwi defence.
The Chiefs may have earned a reputation as one of the most inventive and incisive attacking outfits in Super Rugby, but there were few signs of it here. The Lions not only held them try-less in front of a bumper 30,000 crowd, but crucially they responded to the call to give a boost to the Test side by finally getting into their stride and adding momentum to the tour.
The biggest advance was that the Chiefs running game was upstaged by a Lions back three that came alive. This was encapsulated by a spectacular secondhalf try by Nowell, as well as another delivered on a plate for Jared Payne thanks to a brilliant weaving run by Liam Williams.
Nowell's footwork and insatiable appetite for hard graft made him a constant threat to the Chiefs, and the sinuous Williams was not far behind. With Elliot Daly reputaalso threatening to break free the home side had lots of holes to plug – and not enough bodies to fill them.
The signs that the Waikato men would struggle to contain the tourists were there early on when Nowell wriggled through a gap before linking with James Haskell, sparking a 20 phase attack that ended with Dan Biggar's penalty giving them an early lead.
The Chiefs could cite mitigating circumstances in terms of being understrength due call ups from the All Blacks and the Maori. Yet, sympathy for the Chiefs having to dig into their reserve tank is not easy to summon, mainly because the sniping Kiwi media tends to be so short on goodwill when other sides are depleted, not to mention smug about the strength-in-depth of the NZ Super franchises.
This was the best the Chiefs could muster, and because they did not have the physical power to live with the midweek tourists their supporters were left with little to cheer. The Lions pack took a leaf from the tactical blueprint employed by the shadow Test side against the Maori, starting by cranking-up the set-piece pressure and then using a rush defence to slam the door shut.
This included regular use of the choke-tackle to win maul turnovers by stopping the Chiefs ball-carriers going to ground, with CJ Stander, Haskell and Rory Best in the vanguard. It also featured Courtney Lawes, Iain Henderson and Justin Tipuric constantly menacing the Chiefs throw, and Dan Cole and Joe Marler turning up the heat at the scrum.
There were also signs of the Lions physicality – and potentially costly indiscipline – when Marler's late forearm smash to the chest of the Chiefs tighthead Nepo Laulala lifted him off his feet, and earned the perpetrator a yellow card.
With the Lions a man down the Chiefs were looking for a power-play, and when local hero Stephen Donald kicked to the corner from Marler's indiscretion they had their chance. Stander had other ideas, driving through the middle of the Chiefs lineout drive to hold up the ball-carrier and win a five-metre scrum turnover.
This saw the first entrance of one of Warren Gatland's controversial mid-tour call-ups, with Allan Dell coming on while Marler served his time. The Scottish loosehead is lively in the loose but does not have the greatest reputa tion as a scrummager, so there was some consternation as he ran on.
Those concerns were dispelled instantly as Dell and company sent the Chiefs scrum scudding backwards at a rate of knots, and from the scrum penalty the tourists cleared their lines.
An exchange of penalties between Biggar and Donald saw the Lions ahead 6-3 at the end of the first quarter, before sustained Lions pressure saw them score the first try of the game. It started with Williams and Nowell combining for the initial breakthrough, and when Stander drove it up the middle to set up a ruck Biggar had a dart. When he was stopped a couple of metres short Nowell picked up and dived over the top of the ruck to plant the ball over the line.
With Biggar converting the Lions led 13-3, and although Donald kicked a second penalty to make it 13-6 at half-time it was the last points the Chiefs scored.
After a scruffy start to the second-half the Lions started to click, and their forwards were rewarded with a penalty try when a lineout drive spearheaded by Henderson was collapsed deliberately by Mitch Brown. The Chiefs flanker was promptly yellow-carded, with French referee Jerome Garces – who takes charge of the 2nd Test – taking decisive action and awarding the seven points to make it 20-6.
With the Chiefs on the back foot after being reduced to 14 men the Lions finished the job in style with two tries either side of the hour mark.
The first was an end-toend move which started with Tipuric sweeping up a Chiefs line-out overthrow in the Lions 22 and the ball was moved swiftly down the line to Daly. His injection of pace had the Chiefs backs scrambling, and when he passed inside to Payne, who linked in turn with Robbie Henshaw, the Lions only had to finish with the precision with which they had started.
With Henshaw setting up the ruck that's exactly what they did, with Henderson sending a pin-point long pass to Nowell, who then cut inside Donald for a classic team try. No sooner had Biggar converted to make it 27-6 than the Lions went back on the offensive with Payne racing over after Williams had carved through the Chiefs defence after Nowell had counterattacked from a loose kick.
Biggar's conversion made the winning margin even healthier, and it would have been wider still had Tommy Seymour not thrown a duff scoring pass to Payne after skinning half the Chiefs defence five minutes from time.
However, by that stage the Lions midweek back three had made their statement, and with Williams and Daly later promoted to the starting XV for the 1st Test they had their reward. Nowell was unlucky not to join them, but he at least had the satisfaction of putting down a marker for the remainder of the series.
