Lions centre Jamie Roberts holds the trophy aloft. Photograph: William West/AFPIt was the perfect start to a spectacular sporting weekend. In Sydney a raucous, and, dare it be said, slightly sozzled, army of Lions fans roared on Warren Gatland's team to their first series victory in 16 long years with a 41-16 demolition of Australia.
In France, Chris Froome put in a stunning effort to win the eighth stage of the Tour de France and take custody of the famous yellow jersey. And back in Britain, on a glorious summer's day, even the prime minister, among others, took to social media to express his excitement as Andy Murray prepared to attempt to become the first Briton since 1936 to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon. "A superb result for the British and Irish Lions," the prime minister wrote on Twitter. "Hoping Andy Murray can make it the perfect sporting weekend."
The rugby match in front of a crowd of 83,702, predominantly Australians, at Sydney's ANZ stadium was supposed to be close. Australia were even said to have the vital momentum after edging the second Test just a week ago.
Yet the British & Irish Lions gloriously defied all expectations to crush the Wallabies with a second-half demolition that turned an edgy 19-10 lead after 40 minutes into what even the home press admitted was a thrashing.
Fly-half Jonny Sexton, George North – perhaps the face of the Lions's powerful, youthful exuberance – and Jamie Roberts, the controversial replacement for the veteran Irish centre Brian O'Driscoll, all scored tries in a breathless spell to make it a record points tally against the Wallabies. Man of the match Leigh Halfpenny landed seven of eight kicks to finish with 21 points.
Lions coach Gatland will inevitably be hailed a genius after making five changes from the team that lost to the Wallabies in the second Test, including dropping Brian O'Driscoll, 34. But it could have been very different, as Gatland conceded in his post-match comments. "The last three or four days have been very, very hard," he said. "I had to make a tough decision on Thursday in leaving Brian out. You always doubt decisions but you have to make those hard calls sometimes.
"We said, 'look, there's going to be a significant amount of fallout for that and are we prepared to take the flak?' I've taken quite a bit of flak and I don't want to gloat or feel vindicated. It was about the boys today.
"It was an outstanding performance. We started well, came under some pressure and bounced back again. I said all along that Australia were desperate last week and they brought all their emotion. We felt there was another step up we could bring and we showed that tonight."
Former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan had a rather more partisan take: "Me thinks #AussieBashing will be trending all summer … !!!" he tweeted.
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