Andy Farrell demands sharper performance despite Lions victory

Despite a 36-24 win over the Brumbies, British and Irish Lions head coach Andy Farrell issued a stern call for improvement, admitting his side were well short of their best in Canberra.

While the scoreline added another win to the tour record, Farrell was clearly frustrated with the lack of control and precision throughout the match.

"We kept them in the game," Farrell admitted, referring to a string of unnecessary errors and poor decision-making.

"We kept on trying to overplay at times, certainly around halfway, and putting ourselves back under pressure and keeping them in the game."

His disappointment was especially aimed at the first-half performance, where the Lions—despite fielding a team close to their probable Test XV—struggled to assert dominance over a largely second-string Brumbies side.

The coach emphasised that while there were glimpses of fluency, inconsistency and lack of execution nearly undermined the overall effort.

"I thought we were a bit patchy," Farrell said.

"There were some real good moments and some moments we need to fix up pretty quickly. The reason we were patchy is because of the discipline, again, and our execution, which wasn't good enough."

Despite pulling clear on the scoreboard late in the game, Farrell stressed that results alone won’t be enough when the Test series begins.

"When we got into our flow, we looked pretty decent, but we just didn't stay there long enough," he added, pointing out the team’s inability to build sustained pressure.