Harrowing as this defeat must be for the Lions squad, the result is hard to quibble with. Australia perfectly executed the exacting philosophy on which their reputation is founded, all but suffocating the Lions.
It was a bridge too far for the tourists; the appalling litany of injuries eventually told and the failure to exploit the potential of Daniel Herbert's 10-minute sin-binning more or less eliminated us.
It was a fascinating match in that both teams operated at the cutting edge and the encounter seemed poised to turn on a fundamental error rather than through any moment of blinding ingenuity. Perhaps that was the most frustrating thing from a Lions perspective: there was the sense that the tourists possessed more individual brilliance and flair in the likes of Brian O'Driscoll, Austin Healey and Jonny Wilkinson. Collectively, however, the Australians managed to nullify that and as the series progressed, their calm and forceful team ethic came to the fore.
Their momentum started building almost from the moment of Joe Roff's intercept try in game Test two and again on Saturday, their defence was unimpeachable during the vital last quarter of the match. Striking as the Australians can look when they move the ball at speed, they are essentially a dour proposition, grinding and iron-willed force more so than exponents of total rugby. They simply tied our hands on Saturday.
George Smith was tremendous, doing more than anyone to constantly slow-down the Lions attempts to develop quick, second phase ball. After the first game, we never really managed to move it quickly enough to consistently trouble the home team.
Erratic decision making in the lineout compounded our problems; Justin Harrison is a tremendous athlete and Rod Macqueen must have been thrilled with his debut but still, the Lions looked far from polished on their own throws. We can point to Jonny Wilkinson's penalty misses and it was disappointing given he managed to convert Jason Robinson's try from the touch-line so brilliantly. It is hard to say what hampered him - probably the fact that he was essentially still recovering from injury won't have helped. He had a luckless tour, if very brave, and it would be a little unreasonable to put the blame on him.
Not that their should be any recriminations about this tour loss anyway. The Lions were beaten by a formidable and organised team. After 11 months of domestic rugby, they summoned enough will to compete against a ferociously eager nation and they might have won the series. It was generally predicated the outcome would rest on the smallest of passages and so it proved. Matt Burke's penalty which gave Australia a 23-26 lead arose from a messed-up Lions lineout movement. Colin Charvis was penalised for Burke's next kick and that sealed the game.
It was a shame O'Driscoll didn't really get a chance to shine in this match. He had one half decent ball which went to ground. Generally, though, the quality ball never really came his way after the first match. It was interesting to see how the Australian midfield partnership went from being outplayed to eventually dominating proceedings.
Similarly, their wingers became more prominent in the latter half of the Test series.
Still, Jason Robinson had a sublime tour and really was a revelation, so hungry for the ball and defensively very keen and able also. Dafydd James had a substantial tour as well, although maybe not the burning threat we might have had. He was sort of anonymous yesterday but that can happen to wingers when they don't get enough ball. I had an entire career like that.
I think the Irish Test trio can go home feeling their stock has been enhanced. What's left to say about Brian O'Driscoll? The man is one of the world figures in rugby union now and his first Test try stands alone as a timeless moment of sporting magic. Woody had a fine tour in open play but the perfectionist in him will probably be annoyed about the lineout situations and Rob Henderson certainly did his reputation no harm.
Danny Grewcock certainly emerged as a marquee player over the series and who would have thought that Martin Corry would have had the impact that he did?
Iain Balshaw had a miserable experience and all the pre-tour hype and expectations sort of blew up in his face. His day will come though I feel the England full back position may have a new challenger in Josh Lusey, who has impressed on the England's Canada tour. It was a pity Lawrence Dallaglio's tour never really happened. We missed him at number 8. He was supposed to show up at a charity cricket function I attended at the weekend but the word was his cruciate injury is more severe than was initially forecast. He may be out for over six months now, which is a blow for him. I suppose Jeremy Davidson and Mal O'Kelly will come home with mixed feelings. It was a pity for them but when players like Grewcock emerged so convincingly, there was always a likelihood of them getting squeezed out.
Managing a squad of this scale and talent over such a period is thankless. I don't know how serious the tension was - I presume that will emerge in the coming weeks. I don't feel it should be attributable to be blamed for the loss, though. These players are professional after all. In retrospect, they should have spread the games out more. The sequence of matches really devastated our squad and robbed us of players that we realistically needed to topple the Australians. The side was too patchwork going into the final test.
Rod Macqueen leaves a hell of a squad behind him. As well as being versatile rugby players, the Aussies are tremendous athletes. Owen Finegan , the peerless George Gregan, Roff, Nathan Gray and the live-wire George Smith delivered even more impressively than we expected them to.
The outcome was disappointing but it was encouraging to see a collection of home players, at the tail end of a season, taking on the cream of Southern Hemisphere rugby and well, almost living to tell the tale. Watching from the sofa, it made for a great month of sport.
