{"id":19404,"date":"2025-07-24T03:43:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T03:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/19404\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T03:43:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T03:43:11","slug":"brian-odriscoll-addresses-bi-lions-mentality-ahead-of-second-test-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/19404\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian O’Driscoll addresses B&I Lions ‘mentality’ ahead of second Test : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

British and Irish Lions legend Brian O\u2019Driscoll believes that Andy Farrell\u2019s side should have put 40 points on the Wallabies in the first Test.<\/p>\n

The tourists were heavy favourites prior to the series and they dominated the opening match in Brisbane without it being truly shown on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

They led 24-5 at one stage but struggled with their discipline in the second period and that allowed Australia to put more respectability on the final result.<\/p>\n

Taking their chances<\/p>\n

That cutting edge was lacking from the Lions\u2019<\/a> game last weekend and O\u2019Driscoll<\/a> is fascinated by how they will approach the second Test.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking at it and going, what mentality will the Lions have? Will they have that cut-throat nature? Will they keep their foot on the throat when it\u2019s necessitated?\u201d he told Off The Ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia<\/a> have nothing after this game. A consolation of a Test match win in a Lions lost series is nothing. Ask the players that were involved in South Africa in 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will come with huge intent. Whether they have enough belief installed in them throughout the week and with those changes, which you would anticipate, will that be the difference between bridging that eight-point gap?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like it should have been 20 points. I just think the Lions, irrespective of their selections or who\u2019s available to them, should have too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronan O\u2019Gara warns \u2018absolute freak\u2019 can change everything after British and Irish Lions exposed \u2018gulf in class\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Complacency<\/p>\n

The Lions are very much expected to wrap up a series triumph in Melbourne on Saturday, but O\u2019Driscoll knows that it is not as simple as just turning up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s sport and I\u2019ve been stung enough times over the course of my career, and seen it enough in the last 10 years as a pundit, that when you least expect it, it comes back to bite,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny form of complacency or the subconscious switching off, or thinking about what might be as a Lions series winner, and all of those things; you\u2019ll fight human nature as much as you can but that\u2019s going on in the back of some people\u2019s heads, I\u2019m sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were so significantly better than Australia and they will probably say: \u2018We only played for a half, so if we manage to play for two halves, we should pull these apart\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should have been 40 points, we should have scored 40 at the weekend. You think about the [Joe] McCarthy crossfield kick, the Huw Jones missed opportunity \u2013 that\u2019s at least 12 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe catalyst that creates confidence and belief, passes then stick and you play with freedom while heads drop, so it works both ways \u2013 hyper-confidence and dropping your heads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why you get these big scorelines, even in Test match rugby these days.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ex-England player issues \u2018forget it\u2019 plea to Andy Farrell, telling him not to select Owen Farrell for the Lions second Test bench<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British and Irish Lions legend Brian O\u2019Driscoll believes that Andy Farrell\u2019s side should have put 40 points on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[428,12429,3481,348,3482,50,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-19404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-australia","tag-brian-o","tag-british-and-irish-lions","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}