Despite a brave performance the BARLA Great Britain Young Lions went down 62-12 to the outstanding Australian Schoolboys.

The hosts surged into a 16-0 lead with just 20 minutes gone, however, the Young Lions deserve tremendous credit for a battling display.

Scott Farmer crossed to open BARLA’s account after 29 minutes and with hooker Paul Crook adding the extras the game was very much alive.

However, two quick scores from the Schoolboys just before the interval opened up a 28-6 lead and from there on the result was never in doubt.

The pace and power of the Schoolboys began to tell after the break and they scored at regular intervals during the second half. But the Young Lions also had some joy, as they added a further try from Milford’s Richard Hulme.

Young Lions coach Carl Briscoe was proud of the effort from his side. He said, “It was a creditable performance even though the score line was one-sided. It was only 16-6 with five minutes to go till half time and I think that surprised most people.

He added, “For the second game running the whole squad has shown tremendous effort and enthusiasm and there was definitely an improvement from the first game.

Assistant coach Steve Hunt was also proud of the display. He said, “Australia were a very strong and fit side, but I was impressed with our performance. We competed well and surprised them on may occasions with some neat passages of play and crunching tackles.”