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 | | | You are in: Special Events: 2001: Lions Down Under |
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| |  Saturday, 14 July, 2001, 14:28 GMT 15:28 UK Our greatest achievement BBC Sport Online columnist David Giffin says that in beating the Lions, Australia have overcome their greatest challenge of the last few years. At the start of every year the Australian team sets itself goals for the year - beating the Lions was this year's and fulfilling it is a tremendous achievement. We rate the Lions extremely highly and have an enormous amount of respect for them. We knew it wouldn't be easy but after being a little too relaxed for the first Test, we have come from behind and proven just why we are the world champions. The Lions had more possession and territorial advantage in every Test but Australia showed the importance of taking your chances by converting possession into points.
Australia also finshed each Test the stronger, which is testimony to our fitness and the hard work done in training. For me, though, the crucial moment of the series came just after the break in Melbourne when Joe Roff scored a brilliant intercepted try. Just about everything went our way after that. Poor Having said that the Lions will be disappointed with the number of lineouts they lost on their own throw in the final Test. A team must be looking to win 90-95% of their lineouts and the Lions fell way below this quota. This was a key area and the tourists paid for their mistakes. A lot of credit for this must go to Justin Harrison, making his Test debut, in place of me. He made superb crucial turnovers and had a strong game around the field. Harrison took advantage of the chance that came his way and I'm now facing a battle to get my place back.
I was struggling last week with a torn muscle in my side and when that recovered I damaged a hamstring - giving Justin his chance. In all honesty it was terrible watching the match on televisison, especially considering I had been an ever-present in the side for two-and-a-half years. I'm in Brisbane at the moment having physio on the injury and hope to be able to join our Tri-Nations training camp next Thursday. It's always difficult getting into a winning side and Justin put in a massive shout but I'm just focused on proving my fitness and making sure I'm available for selection. | |
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