Keenan’s last-minute score saw The Lions win the series against Australia
Leinster’s Hugo Keenan etched himself into British and Irish Lions’ history this morning when his late try secured a 29-26 victory over the Wallabies, which clinched a series win for Andy Farrell’s men.
The Lions had pulled off a routine win in the first game of the series, but found themselves in serious trouble early on Saturday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Having trailed 23-5 midway through the opening half, the Lions looked down against Joe Schmidt’s side.
However, tries from Dan Sheehan, Tom Curry, Huw Jones and Tadhg Beirne brought the Lions back within three points of the hosts.
Keenan delivered the decisive moment just seconds before th 80-minute mark when he managed to get over the line to secure the win.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Farrell said that he was delighted for Keenan who has been plagued by injury, but admitted that he was screaming at him to pass the ball to Jack Conan who was to his left as he made his way to the try-line.
He said: “t wasn’t great, especially in the first half. We started with back-to-back penalties and yellow cards, and it really cost us on the scoreboard.
“But we found a way back into the game, and that gave us confidence heading into the second half. And, wow – what a finish!
“I was screaming, ‘PASS IT! PASS IT!’ to Hugo.
“To score at the death of a Lions Test. It’s fairy-tale stuff. To win like that, it means everything. To win it at the death like that, it’s a fairytale.
“After what he has been through…it was all worth it.”
Speaking after the game, Keenan said: “We knew we had it in us at half-time we had clawed it back and Faz (Farrell) still believed in us.
“We knew we hadn’t performed in the first half and it probably still wasn’t the performance we wanted in the second half either, but it was definitely the character, it was the grit [that won the game].”
