Same old Lions, same old problems?
Andy Farrell must be tired of giving the same half-time team talk. All through the tour, the Lions have struggled to stamp their mark in the first half of a game, and in the last two fixtures, they have very nearly come unstuck because of their poor discipline and sloppy handling.
The tourists beat the Waratahs by 11 points on Saturday and the Brumbies by 12 on Wednesday. A win is a win, but the performances continued what has been an alarming tradition of poor restart gathering as well as the giving away of senseless penalties.
Since Farrell touches on it at most post-match interviews, one would be forgiven for thinking it would be fixed by now, but against the Brumbies, the Lions started by conceding a needless penalty for crossing, the hosts kicked to the corner, and duly scored from the possession. The Lions were behind in less than five minutes of the start.
There was also a poor pass from Bundee Aki to James Lowe, which ended up in touch, there was an offside penalty at the lineout, and Lowe failed to dot down having done the hard yards to get over in the corner. That was just in the first half.
In the second, there was some poor handling from Jamison Gibson-Park in his own in-goal area, which led to a scrum from which the Brumbies scored a try to get back in the game.
The same questions are being asked about the Lions' discipline in defence and respect for the ball when in possession, and they don't seem to be answering them. With only one match left before the first Test, Farrell is running out of runway to get those answers out of his players.
Super Rugby sides giving Lions little rhythm
Every time there is a Lions tour, there is an unspoken as well as a spoken rule for the non-Test teams to soften up the tourists ahead of the three big games at the end.
But beyond asking the non-internationals to be physical, Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt appears to have asked for chaos from all the games leading to his side's fixtures against Farrell's troops.
In each game, there seems to be more intensity in the rush defence and at the breakdown, which has disturbed the Lions' ability to get much joy out of their combinations and gameplay.
With the Brumbies players flying into every corner of the ruck on Wednesday, it was tough for Gibson-Park to link up successfully with his fly-half and his forwards, and as a result, a backline in desperate need of some time together was not given as much of a platform to click as they would have hoped.
As mentioned above, there is only one game to go before the Test series roars into life, and if the Lions are still disjointed by the time the first Test takes place in Brisbane, the Wallabies will owe a debt of gratitude to their Super Rugby colleagues for that fact.
Front five still give Lions the edge
While there are still Test jerseys up for debate, something Farrell reiterated after Wednesday's match, it would be a surprise if those who started in the front five against the Brumbies don't do the same in the first Test.
Ellis Genge's reputation in red took shape when he made short work of Argentina's scrum in Dublin in the opening match of the tour. The Pumas can be a ferocious prospect at scrum time, but Genge keeps their reverse lights on throughout the 80, seemingly with ease.
Tadhg Furlong had question marks over his fitness coming into the tour, but after getting through a handy shift in the Lions' latest outing, he looks set to pack down with Genge as the other prop.
In Dan Sheehan, the Lions have a truly world-class player capable of taking a game by the scruff of the neck, as shown in his barnstorming run down the right touchline that included a big hand-off to prove, if needed, that he has power to go with his pace.
While the Lions' lineouts have not yet been a thing of beauty, the scrums and work rate in the loose have been impressive with those three forming the front row.
Maro Itoje appears to have really flourished in his role as captain, and Joe McCarthy is having the tour of his life with a series of sparkling performances. Before the tourists headed to Australia, the talk was that there was one near certainty in the form of a second-row pairing of Itoje and Tadhg Beirne.
With the way McCarthy is playing, and the way Ollie Chessum has grabbed his opportunity in the number six jersey, it's hard to see Beirne forcing his way back into a Test team that now appears to have a truly settled tight five.
Kinghorn injury ramps up pressure
Blair Kinghorn is seen by many as the man to wear the number 15 jersey in the Test series against the Wallabies if he is fully fit, but that now appears to be a big 'if'.
The Scotland and Toulouse full-back limped off the field towards the end of the first half after picking up a seemingly quite nasty knock to his knee. Though concern was initially high, Farrell was slightly more measured about the situation in his post-match interview. No update could be fully given, but by all accounts, Kinghorn was walking about at the end.
Regardless of how Farrell outwardly appeared, it's a particularly concerning injury given the fact that the tourists have already lost Elliot Daly to a tour-ending injury.
Farrell then took the intriguing decision to call up his son Owen as a replacement for Daly, which attracted a lot of criticism as the Saracens team-mates, while both versatile, play in none of the same positions.
Now Farrell senior is left with just one out-and-out full-back; Ireland's Hugo Keenan, who has missed the vast majority of the tour through bouts of injury and illness.
The injury to Kinghorn may not be as bad as initially feared, but the Lions are in a precarious position if anything else goes wrong in that department in these next two weeks.
Over to you, Owen
When news broke that Owen Farrell was joining the team, there were murmurs of nepotism and concerns he may not be match fit.
The 33-year-old has not played Test rugby since England's last game at the 2023 World Cup, and in fact has not played a game of rugby of any kind in over two months.
However, those in favour of the England legend's selection will point to the way he lifts any team he joins by leading from the front.
"One thing about Faz is the standards he sets on the training field," said Lions team-mate Luke Cowan-Dickie when the decision was announced.
"He's got a bit of an aura about him on training fields, which makes you want to try and train to perfection.
"I know it’s quite hard to perfect training every single day, but he definitely makes standards higher."
Those are the words, but now it is time for the action.
Owen Farrell will almost certainly be involved in some way this weekend against the First Nations & Pasifika XV, and his father will hope for a stand-out performance that silences the critics as well as lifts the standards of a team not yet firing on all cylinders.
If he doesn't, the concern will be that despite six warm-up matches, the Lions will head into that first Test with some questions still alarmingly unanswered.