Reds v British & Irish Lions: Winners and losers as ‘magnificent’ Morgan leads the onslaught while Wallabies snub shines in defeat

British and Irish Lions forward Jac Morgan and an inset of captain Maro Itoje.
Following the British and Irish Lions’ 52-12 victory over the Queensland Reds in Brisbane, we pick out our winners and losers from the action at the Suncorp Stadium.
Today’s encounter followed a similar script to that of the clash against the Western Force as the hosts managed to keep things rather tight in the first half, trailing by just nine points, before Andy Farrell’s men simply outclassed their opponents in the second half.
Ultimately, the B&I Lions ran in eight tries to the Reds‘ two as the tourists continue to build momentum ahead of the highly anticipated Test series.
Without further ado, here are our winners and losers.
Winners
Maro Itoje
A mammoth shift from the British and Irish Lions captain. It’s easy to see why Farrell turned to the impressive second-rower Maro Itoje when Caelan Doris was ruled out of the tour, as the Englishman performs at an incredibly high standard regardless of the opposition.
He was once again excellent in all facets of the game with strong work in defence, with ball in hand and his work-rate was off the charts. A real standout was the small things like fighting for the scraps by diving on the loose balls. Running the lineout needs a bit of work, but that will come while he shone on the Reds’ throws.
Epitome of leading from the front and by example.
Joe Brial
Overlooked by Joe Schmidt for the Wallabies squad after a sublime Super Rugby Pacific season, but may well get a look in following the injury to Rob Valetini. He fits the bill to replace the brilliant back-rower’s void, being a furious defender and an athletic career, not to forget his ability to play in all three loose forward positions.
It was his thundering carry that led to the opening try of the match, and he backed that up by denying the tourists one as he expertly held up Bundee Aki to deny the Irish international. He later showed a calm head not to drop Jamison Gibson-Park on his head when he lifted the scrum-half off the ground.
Jack Conan
Jack Conan’s campaign to secure the starting number eight jersey for the Test matches is gathering real steam with yet another standout performance. He led the way for tackles and defenders beaten in the first half and showed off his softer skills with slick hands to send Duhan van der Merwe over just before the break.
Jac Morgan
Staying with the Lions’ back-rowers, and after an underwhelming debut for the tourists against Argentina, Jac Morgan was vastly improved against the Reds.
He looked far more in-sync, which is very much true for the squad overall at this point, which Farrell will be pleased about. The better clarity of his role and responsibilities was clearly evident, and he racked up a solid tackle count and shone with the ball in hand, even crossing for a try.
Played to that standard right to the final minute, winning a fantastic turnover that eventually led to one last try in the game at a time that the Reds looked to launch a threatening attack from deep. He has endured a tough time with Wales at the highest level, where he was a beacon of light, and can be mighty proud of his efforts today.
The lone Welshman in the squad was deservedly named man of the match after a magnificent shift.
👏 What a shift from Jac Morgan!
80 Minutes ⏱️
18 Tackles* 👊
3 Turnovers* ✊
7 Carries 🏃♂️
5 Passes ✋
1 Offload 👌
44 Metres 💨
1 Clean break🧼
1 Defender beaten 🔥
1 Try 🏉The lone Welshman was brilliant against the Reds. #REDvLIO #LionsRugby
*Match high pic.twitter.com/RTtyj18T2q
— Planet Rugby (@PlanetRugby) July 2, 2025
Hunter Paisami
Wallabies boss Schmidt released the midfielder from his squad in order to get some minutes in his legs and press for a place back in the starting XV, with Len Ikitau expected to feature alongside Joseph Suaalii against Fiji.
The powerful midfielder punched through a hole in the Lions’ defence in the build-up to the Reds’ opening try and regularly drew the attention of the red wall before expertly playing out the back.
Showed that he is far from just a battering ram as he attempted a cross-field kick and managed to trouble Aki when he shot up on the powerful number 12.
Jamison Gibson-Park and Finn Russell
Widely regarded as the frontrunners for the nine and ten jumpers for the three Tests against the Wallabies, they issued a statement of intent today.
While Jamison Gibson-Park and Finn Russell’s brilliance on attack really caught the eye, we were rather impressed with their overall kicking game, particularly in their ability to exit their own half.
The Lions continue to have issues at receiving restarts, but the half-backs’ ability to play the game in the right areas of the pitch really paid dividends.
Tommy Freeman
Absolutely brilliant throughout the 80 minutes, scoring two tries. Tommy Freeman was a strong contender for Man of the Match yet again as the Englishman worked relentlessly on both sides of the ball and despite his enormous work-rate, he was largely without fault.
Freeman may well want an opportunity to impress in the midfield at some stage before the Tests come along, but he is producing the goods on the wing and has replicated his form for Northampton Saints and England in the red jersey.
Losers
Hugo Keenan
After recovering from the troublesome calf injury that saw him miss the end of Leinster’s season, Hugo Keenan finally looked primed to make his British and Irish Lions debut. However, it was not to be as head coach Farrell confirmed that the full-back missed the match through illness.
With the arrival of Blair Kinghorn and the excellent showings of Elliot Daly, the race for the starting full-back jersey for the Test series is heating up incredibly quickly and Keenan has missed a great opportunity to stamp his mark.
It looked as if he could be a real contender for the position, and based on past performances, he will surely still be in the mix, but these matches are coming thick and fast. On a Lions tour, one of the best attributes is simply being available and fortunately for Keenan, he could well be good to go for the NSW Waratahs match.
Tom Curry
A Test match animal, but it wasn’t quite his day as Tom Curry struggled to really impose himself. He conceded a pair of turnovers inside the opening hour of action.
He managed to get his hands on the ball plenty, often as a distributor, but perhaps needs to be a bit more direct, particularly when featuring in a back-row containing another openside flanker.
There is no doubt about Curry’s quality, but there are questions around his lineout ability when fielded as blindside, which could really count against him.
Starting Lions front-rowers
There is a balance that needs to be struck nowadays at the highest level in the front-row of getting serious athletes with ball skills but who are accurate in their core roles as well. Against the Reds, the starting big boys managed the former to a great extent but were found lacking with the latter.
The lineout continues to be a blight on the Lions’ performances on the tour, and while a lot of that can go down to cohesion, the quality of Ronan Kelleher’s throw-ins have not been up to standard. Meanwhile, the Lions were also put under a bit of pressure in the earlier scrums. The latter aspect did improve before the entire front-row was replaced, but getting accuracy from minute one will be far more important as the tour goes on.
It’s far from a major issue right now, but in terms of selection for the bigger matches, the trio will need to make adjustments and quickly.
Bundee Aki
With Sione Tuipulotu being a standout in the opening two games of the tour, Bundee Aki needed a big game against Queensland Reds today and just didn’t produce it.
Sure, there were standout moments like a thundering carry that knocked Paisami back somewhat, but overall, it was far from the influential role that has become the standard for the powerhouse midfielder.
He struggled with some of the link-up play with Russell and the rest of the backs and will be disappointed that he was held up while crossing the try-line at the back of a maul in the first half.
Les Kiss
The Reds boss will have fancied his side’s chances when they headed into the break trailing the tourists by just nine points, but after the break, it was one-way traffic as the Lions flexed their strength in depth.
With Schmidt holding onto so many of the Reds’ best and brightest talents, it was always going to be difficult for Les Kiss’ charges to replicate Jake White’s Brumbies’ effort in 2013 and that proved to be the case.
For Kiss personally, he will get another crack at the tourists when he takes charge of the AUNZ XV in Melbourne later down the line.
READ MORE: AS IT HAPPENED: The Lions notch up another impressive victory