Lions edge historic First Nations clash with help of Jamie Osborne tries

The final midweek game of this Lions tour was always destined to be something of a mixed bag. Towards the end there were a host of unlikely red-shirted players out on the field and the outcome was still in some doubt until the closing minutes. Two tries for Jamie Osborne eventually saw his side home but very little about the evening turned out to be predictable or comfortable.

In terms of pointers towards second Test selection the picture was also pretty blurred. Blair Kinghorn, back from a strained knee, showed some excellent touches but also had a couple of passes intercepted. Jamie George’s line-out throwing was consistently good while Owen Farrell’s no-nonsense instructions to his team were audible from the stands 50 metres away.

Scott Cummings and Ben White also showed up well but the back-row collectively endured a tough night and the Lions, once again, purred only in fits and starts. Not that this year’s most unlikely Lions Gregor Brown, Ewan Ashman and Tom Clarkson will particularly care, having both made it off the bench and on to the field in the second half. Whatever else happens in their careers no-one can ever take that honour away from them.

The First Nations side will also have enjoyed it, a 70th minute score from replacement Rob Leota narrowing the scoreboard gap to just five points. Had Kurtley Beale, their captain, been able to kick the conversion it might have been even tighter but, to their relief, the cobbled-together Lions were able to cling on.

This game had originally been slated to involve the Melbourne Rebels before the franchise folded last year, requiring the Australian Rugby Union to rustle up some different opposition. The result was a hybrid squad containing six indigenous players with the remainder of Pacific Island heritage.

The objective was to be more competitive than the combined Australia & New Zealand side who lost 48-0 in Adelaide 10 days ago and the team sheet was theoretically not lacking for talent or muscle. So it proved in a feisty first half which, after a confident start, did not always go as the Lions might have wished.

Initially it had all been relatively smooth, the Lions enjoying an early numerical advantage when winger Triston Reilly was sin binned for a high shoulder on Graham. A nice left-footed chip from Farrell duly set up Osborne for the game’s opening score and Graham, another of the tour’s recent arrivals, then scampered clear for a second.

Fin Smith of the British & Irish Lions, right, attempts to block a kick by First Nations & Pacifika XV’s Kurtley Beale. Photograph: Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/AP

Any feeling of satisfaction felt by the latter at registering a first Lions try, however, was short-lived, the Scottish winger limping off with a lower leg injury after just 16 minutes. While he at least has something tangible to show for his Lions experience, it was an all-too-brief cameo.

It was also the signal for their opponents to spring into life. Roused by a couple of scraps, including an impromptu wrestling bout between Henry Pollock and Seru Uru, they scored an interception try through Reilly and then conceded a second when Uru burst unstoppably over from close range, with James Ryan yellow carded for illegally trying to snuff out the danger.

Not for the first time on this tour Charlie Gamble was also making a nuisance of himself at the breakdown and any Lions momentum began to ebb away. At 14-14 at half-time the touring side clearly needed fresh impetus so it was a timely bonus when a neat Kinghorn catch-and-pass put Osborne away for his second of the night.

Still, though, the Lions could not pull away. Josh van der Flier had a potential fourth score chalked off for a fractional knock-on by Garry Ringrose in the build up and the Irish flanker had the ball ripped from him by the full-back Andy Muirhead five metres from the line.

It took until the final quarter for Dhan van der Merwe to give his side some breathing space, with Farrell again involved in the build-up. The latter still rates the 2013 midweek game against the Rebels as one of his favourite Lions memories and there seems to be something about Melbourne, with its trams and sport-obsessed vibe, that suits him.