The British and Irish Lions issued a statement of intent to Australia ahead of the Test series with a 48-0 mauling of an AUNZ Invitational XV in Adelaide.

In their final assignment before next Saturday’s first Test in Brisbane, the Lions delivered the most complete performance on tour to date, nullifying a team that featured eight All Blacks and six Wallabies with eight unanswered tries.

Duhan van der Merwe scored a hat-trick and was joined on the scoresheet by Scotland team-mates Ben White, Sione Tuipulotu and Scott Cummings.

Ireland hooker Ronan Kelleher scored the tourists’ seventh and, after Owen Farrell came off the bench for his first appearance on his fourth Lions tour, England flanker Henry Pollock completed the rout as the Lions finally reached Test match intensity as they claimed their fifth win on Australian soil.

Lions click into gear ahead of Test series

The Lions made a lightning start at the Adelaide Oval, full-back Hugo Keenan’s quick line-out catching the AUNZ XV team napping as Van der Merwe was released for the opening try inside seven minutes.

One became two three minutes later, scrum-half White sniping superbly at the breakdown as he darted under the posts for the Lions’ second try.

Van der Merwe added his second midway through the first half, applying the finishing touch to a well-worked move through the hands to underscore the Lions’ dominance, with only Fin Smith’s wayward kicking form the tee preventing the tourists from ticking over at a point a minute.

An encouraging first-half performance from the Lions was offset by the loss of Luke Cowan-Dickie to a serious-looking head/neck injury, though the England hooker would emerge on the sidelines in the second half after being taken from the field on a motorised stretcher.

It took just four minutes for the Lions to pick up where they left off in the second half, centre Tuipulotu stepping through the AUNZ backline before dotting down under the posts.

In a nod to his potential involvement in the first Test, the impressive Huw Jones was replaced by England and Saracens fly-half Farrell, with Marcus Smith given a rare stint at fly-half for the final 29 minutes.

The Harlequins 10 slotted his first conversion after lock Cummings forced his way over to become the fourth Scottish try-scorer with the Lions’ fifth just after the hour.

Van der Merwe completed his hat-trick with another simple finish in the corner two minutes later, before Kelleher broke the Scottish stranglehold on the try-scoring as he forced himself over after another quick line-out.

And in true fashion, Pollock had the final word as he was rewarded for chasing a Farrell grubber kick into the in-goal area where he touched down on the stretch to put the seal on a statement Lions victory.

Farrell welcomes selection dilemmas

Lions head coach Andy Farrell speaking to Sky Sports: “I thought it was a good and professional performance. When you play these types of games and the types of personnel you can face, anything can happen, but I thought we played nice, controlled rugby and we didn’t let them in the game. We are pleased with our game control.

“We stayed at it, it was never going to be perfect, and kept going as a team, that’s the main thing. There were some great individual performances, but we gelled well as a team.

“We need to enjoy a bit of down time as it has been full on for 14 days, it has been a tough old block. We want people to put their hands up and this group will roll on together and go after the Test series together.”

Sky Sports will exclusively show the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, with all three Tests against the Wallabies and six warm-up matches to be shown exclusively live.

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