A heavily rotated British and Irish Lions side scraped past the First Nations and Pasifika XV (FNP) on Tuesday, earning a 24-19 victory in their hardest fought match Down Under so far.
Andy Farrell's squad maintain their perfect record in Australia despite a sticky performance that will leave few selection headaches ahead of the second Test against the Wallabies on Saturday.
Two tries from Jamie Osborne as well as scores from Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe proved too much for the spirited First Nations and Pasifika side, who held the scores at 14-a-piece at half-time.
It was full credit to the hosts, who gave Joe Schmidt's Wallabies a lesson in ferocity at the breakdown and had tries from Tristan Reilly, Seru Uru and Rob Leota, the last allowing them to creep within five points with less than 10 minutes on the clock.
The result means Lions have swept the nation's four provincial teams and Australia-New Zealand invitational sides.
They will look to seal the Test series with victory over the Wallabies at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday before a final Test on Aug. 2.
"Probably wasn't our best performance, but massive, massive credit's got to go to the First Nations and Pasifika boys, thought they came after us tonight," Owen Farrel, who captained the Lions on Tuesday, told Sky Sports.
"They got off the line really well, they caused us some trouble ... I'm thankful we got the job done in the end."
Farrell was right in the thick of it, charging in to shove Reilly after the hosts' winger hammered into Graham with a try-saving tackle that earned him a yellow card in the fifth minute.
Moments later, Farrell set up the Lions' first try with a neat chip over the First Nations' line that Osborne collected and planted down.
Farrell had a hand in the second for Scottish winger Graham who streamed through a paddock of space.
FNP were 14-0 down after 11 minutes but Reilly returned to the field to intercept a poor Fin Smith pass near the Lions' 22 and jog over for the easiest of tries.
Improbably, FNP wiped out the lead with a converted try to Uru, who burrowed over in the 23rd minute.
Lions lock James Ryan was yellow-carded in the same play for slowing the ball down at the ruck.
Undermanned, the tourists shut out FNP for the rest of the half but were lucky to avoid conceding a third try after another interception.
Home fans hoping for an upset were buoyant in the crowd of 30,420 but Osborne silenced them soon after the restart, with fly-half Smith making up for errant passing with a long ball that set up the centre's second try.
Still the errors flowed, with forward passes and knock-ons denying the Lions two certain tries before Van der Merwe latched onto a Farrell pass to cross in the corner.
Still FNP responded, rumbling the ball to the tryline before Melbourne boy and former Wallaby Leota barged through a crack to trim the deficit to five points in the 71st minute.
The drums were beating among the Pacific Islanders in the terraces but the Lions did well to lock down and ensure they head into the second Wallabies test with winning form.
"Not many people gave us a chance," said FNP's man-of-the-match Charlie Gamble.
"We showed that we deserve to be out there, and we played very hard for each other."
Information from Reuters contributed to this report.
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