Australia fly-half quit England because of Marcus Smith and now 'living the dream'

Wallabies fly-half Tom Lynagh revealed he quit England for down under to get away from Marcus Smith. Lynagh, son of legendary Australian 10 Michael, was in the Harlequins academy, following brother Louis, until heading to the Queensland Reds three years ago.

Eligible for England, where he went to Epsom College, Australia through his dad and Italy, through mother Isabella, Lynagh plumped for the land of his father - with Smith blocking his way at Quins. The 22-year-old said: "Marcus is four years older than me.

"He's close with Louis, going through the academies with him. But he was a 10 ahead of me and a reason I came out here. There were opportunities out here for me and I took them."

Lynagh, on his first Test start, was brought off a torrid hour being harried by the Lions back row in the tourists 27-19 Brisbane win on Saturday.

He added: "This has always been something I wanted to do; follow in Dad's footsteps. I'm sort of living the dream now. I saw Dad in the morning for about an hour and half in our hotel.

"He normally sends me a text message a couple of hours before the game: just keep it simple, don't overplay your hand. That message has never changed from when I was 13. Shame about the result but we've got another two games to go."

Sione Tuipulotu revealed boss Andy Farrell's mind games were behind Saturday's 27-19 opening Test win over the Wallabies.

Farrell had the players fired up from the start of the game when the Lions blew Australia away to lead 17-5 at the break before taking their foot off the gas.

Centre Tuipulotu said: "More than any coach that I've had, Faz controls the emotion of the team really well. He holds us back until it is go time. It is such a big occasion, he doesn't want us to be in the changing room ready to play the game when the game is not starting yet."

Man of the match Tadhg Beirne added: "Andy had a quiet word with the back row. Those words certainly sat with me for the 24 hours leading up to the game."

The Lions flew to Melbourne on Sunday where they will face a First Nations Pasifika XV on Tuesday ahead of Saturday's second Test.