British & Irish Lions hammer Western Force but Andy Farrell dealt worrying scare

Henry Pollock showed the Australians what all the fuss is about as the Lions showed the force is finally with them with this eight-try win, bouncing back from last week's defeat against Argentina.

But there was an injury scare for Andy Farrell's men when scrum-half Tomos Williams limped off with a hamstring injury after scoring his second try on 46 minutes.

Ireland's Jamison Gibson-Park is nursing a glute injury leaving England's Alex Mitchell as the only fit scrum-half available. Pollock made a try for Williams, had a ruck with Western Force Darcy Swain after he celebrated a score and got yellow-carded.

He also threw a horror pass to James Lowe in the first half line that put the wing in trouble behind his own goal line and missed a couple of tackles.

But in between all that he was all-action and willing to get involved whilst some of his colleagues went missing, in front of a partisan crowd in one of the eight Australian venues they'll be playing in this summer.

Finn Russell could not be accused of that after a great night which included making a try and kicking five out of six and Ireland centre Garry Ringrose improve his Test chances with a shuddering defensive display.

And Elliot Daly proved again what a versatile player he is scoring twice, the second off Marcus Smith's cute pass on 71 minutes as the Lions put their foot down. Daly can play wing, centre and full-back, as he did here, and look nailed on for a Test 23 spot at the least.

The loss to 28-24 loss to Argentina in Dublin last week took the wind out of the Lions' sails but boss Farrell had some familiar Irish faces to fall back on and seven of them started here. And this was a much more cohesive display than the one in Dublin.

The ground, which will host the first Ashes Test in November was 15,000 short of its 61,266 capacity as this game was not even the biggest event in town this weekend.

In Western Australia, Aussie Rules is king and the match between Freemantle and St Kilda on Sunday was hogging all the space in the local paper.

But things did not quite as predicted early on as Force, who have not played for a month, gave as good as they got before being blown away.

It took just 95 seconds for the Lions to get on the board thanks to a training ground move orchestrated by Russell who aimed a cross kick at Dan Sheehan who popped it inside to James Lowe before taking the return ball and galloping over.

But Force returned fire when former Exeter scrum-half Nic White burrowed over after following a couple of minutes of frantic defending by the tourists. The Lions were under the pump and rattled into giving away penalties with Ireland's Tadhg Beirne twice getting on the wrong side of ref Ben O'Keefe.

Then Pollock got in the act playing a one-two with Josh van der Flier busting the line through full-back Ben Donaldson then popping it up to Williams, lying on his back, for the score. If the Aussies did not know who Pollock is, they do now.

And he was in the thick of it again when he seemed to be tripped by prop Tom Robertson and was involved in a dust-up with Swain after Elliot Daly had scored the Lions' third. Finn Russell shaped to take a penalty to touch but tapped and went, with Force napping, and found the full-back who drove over.

Then came Pollock's card which was after the Lions had given away a succession of penalties and the youngster was the fall guy when he infringed and earned 10 minutes off.

On 47 minutes the Lions made the second for Williams, who played a one-two with Lowe down the right hand side to finish off an 80-metre effort.

Centre Garry Ringrose got a deserved score after a great evening work in defence before Pollock, out of the bin, produced another game-changer.

His kick put the Force under pressure, the Lions narrowed the home defence with their driving game and lock Joe McCarthy was lurking out wide to score before Daly's second then Mitchell made it 50.

Scorers:

Western Force: Try: White; Con: Donaldson

British & Irish Lions: Tries: Sheehan, Williams (2), Daly (2), Ringrose, McCarthy, Mitchell; Cons: Russell (5), Smith (2)