What a match, what a victory, what a Saturday morning celebration after the British & Irish Lions stormed to a sensational series win over Australia by taking the second Test with a seismic late try.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground has hosted many memorable Ashes moments throughout the ages with arguably the greatest being the 1982 fourth Test with just a single boundary required for the Baggy Green to regain the famous urn when Jeff Thomson edged an Ian Botham delivery to Chris Tavare at second slip.
The hosts’ hearts skipped several beats as he fumbled the ball only for Geoff Miller to snaffle it before it could hit the ground and England were triumphant.
This time the last-gasp heroics were supplied by Lions full-back Hugo Keenan who bulldozed his way over the line to give the tourists a stunning 29-26 victory in front of record crowd of more than 92,000 fans.
The drama didn’t end there, however, as rugby’s equivalent of VAR was called into action, although this didn’t take six minutes or longer to be decided and the nail-biting fightback from 23-5 down was confirmed.
The first Test in Brisbane wasn’t quite so gut-churning with the tourists winning 27-19 but it wasn’t really as comfortable as the final score suggests with the Lions dominating the first half and the hosts causing all manner of problems as they regrouped after trailing 17-5 at the interval.
The series may be decided but the third Test in Sydney will be just as gripping, with no quarter given. Australia will be firing on all cylinders as they seek to a modicum of pride and redemption by winning the final Test while the Lions have stated from the start that they want to return to the northern hemisphere with a 3-0 whitewash tucked under their belts.
It’s safe to assume Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt will field the strongest possible line-up and it would be a surprise if his opposite number Andy Farrell didn’t do the same with the Lions chasing a perfect 9-0 success rate on the tour and the first Test clean sweep in Australia since 1927.
Can they do it? The character and physical and mental fortitude displayed as they registered the biggest comeback in Lions history more than suggests they can and bookmakers agree, with bet365 posting the best odds on another victory at just 1/3.
The better wager to place before another early Saturday morning pint at your rugby club or in the pub is 4/6 with BoyleSports that the Lions win by more than six points.
Tennis odds
Mirra Andreeva played some delightful tennis as she reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon before losing in straight sets via two tie-breaks to Belinda Bencic and she also advanced to the last eight at the Bad Homburg Open after battling through to the last four on the clay at the French Open, Italian Open and in Madrid.
The 18-year-old Russian won the women’s title at Indian Wells in March and is terrific each-way material for this week’s Canadian Open in Montreal at 9/1 with William Hill and bet365.
Taylor Fritz is the second seed in the men’s draw and has the benefit of being in the fourth quarter of the draw over in Toronto where he dodges most of the big guns in action such as Alexander Zverev, Holger Rune and the promising Joao Fonseca.
The American will potentially have to face either Andrey Rublev or Miami Open champion Jakob Mensik in the last eight but should be going at full pelt by then and is 6/1 with bet365 to take the title.
