Double for Jones but Lions fail to impress

HUW Jones put himself even more firmly in the Test match picture but Andy Farrell's Lions were made to work to retain their unbeaten record in Australia.

- ADAM HATHAWAY

The history books will say this three-try win made it a hat-trick of wins Down Under but this was no 50-point pasting and second-half stroll that the victories over Western Force and the Reds were.

The Waratahs came to play and with the best Australian Super Rugby outfit, the Brumbies, to come on Wednesday in Canberra it was a work out the Lions needed.

Centre Jones scored two first-half tries but this was a scrappy match and not one which will live long in the memory banks of the visiting fans.

Jones linked up well with his Scottish midfield partner Sione Tuipulotu and that could be a sign of things to come in the first Test in Brisbane in two weeks' time.

And another sign of what to expect in that opener against the Wallabies came in the last half an hour when Blair Kinghorn switched from wing to fullback replacing Hugo Keenan.

Irishman Keenan was having his first outing of the tour, after injury and illness, and looked all at sea before being taken off after 50 minutes with Kinghorn moving to the back.

Keenan opened up with a dropped ball in midfield that the Waratahs would have turned into a try but for Scott Cummings' cover and then was run over by home wing Darby Lancaster for the hosts' first score.

Scotland's Kinghorn, below, only arrived in Australia on Monday after celebrating Toulouse's Top 14 in Paris last weekend but showed he had got rid of any hangover with a composed display in two positions on the night. He played with the confidence of a man who has won the French title twice in two years and is used to training with Antoine Dupont and his place in the first Test squad looks set in stone.