Farrell: Waratahs may have over-watered pitch to hinder Lions

SYDNEY (AP) — British and Irish Lions coach Andy Farrell has suggested the New South Wales Waratahs may have deliberately over-watered the pitch at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium ahead of Saturday’s match in which the tourists struggled to a 21-10 win.

The Lions kept their unbeaten record but produced their least impressive performance so far against a Waratahs team stripped of most of its Wallabies.

Farrell implied the pitch had been watered to disadvantage the Lions at a post-match news conference. Despite winning 62 percent of possession and 70 percent of territory, the Lions stumbled to a three tries to two win amid a flurry of handling errors.

Coastal areas of New South Wales state, including Sydney, had been hit by a “bomb cyclone” in the week before the match which brought torrential rain and high winds. But Farrell said he had raised the possibility to pitch had been additionally watered after speaking with Waratahs attack coach and former England and Lions international Mike Catt.

“The pitch was very wet and I was asking Mike Catt after the game and he was laughing,” Farrell said. “But, I mean, that’s good tactics from them, isn’t it? The ball’s slippery, the breakdown’s ferocious enough and the line speed is high-octane stuff as well from them.

“Catty just laughed and we’ve seen that done plenty of times. I don’t know whether the pitch needed watering.”

Waratahs captain Hugh Sinclair and coach Dan McKellar laughed off Farrell’s accusation.

”(Did you) see the weather on Tuesday? It was like a … cyclone,” Sinclair said.

McKellar added “no, no, no, no, no. Andy was probably sunning himself in Brisbane on Tuesday but it wasn’t pleasant in Sydney, that’s for sure.”

Farrell was willing to concede the Lions did not play well after posting 50 points in their first two tour matches against the Western Force and Queensland Reds.

“There’s a bit of frustration there,” Farrell said. “It’s nice to get a win but at this stage we’re trying to judge the performance and we are a little bit more disappointed with the amount of possession and territory that we had and how we dealt with certain situations.

“Let’s congratulate the Waratahs as well for the the type of game that they played, But when you have 70 per cent territory and 20 turnovers, that’s by far not clinical enough.”

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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby