British & Irish Lions beat Waratahs but lose Jamie Roberts

The British & Irish Lions overcame a plucky New South Wales Waratahs to maintain their one hundred percent record with a 47-17 win in Sydney today.
The tourists, boasting the majority of the XV expected to start the first test next weekend, posted five tries in a victory that included 30 points for full-back Leigh Halfpenny.
However, the Lions seem to have lost Jamie Roberts for the rest of the series after the Welsh centre limped off the pitch with a suspected torn hamstring.
A busy Simon Zebo thought he had scored within 45 seconds of kick off with his first touch of the ball as a Lion. Yet he was denied by the strong challenge from experienced Tahs full-back Drew Mitchell.
Minutes later Halfpenny opened his tally with a penalty after a Waratahs infringement.
The first try came from fly-half Jonny Sexton following a poor kick-chase by the hosts taking the score to 10-0.
A Waratahs counter attack from deep resulted in an exquisite score for centre Tom Carter to peg the Lions back to 10-7 after 14 minutes.
The tourists responded staunchly as Halfpenny kicked two further penalties to take the lead out to nine points.
The physical second quarter continued with a Waratahs’ three pointer from Brendan McKibbin but closed with a try from Welshman Halfpenny. The Cardiff Blues point machine touched down in the corner after some excellent work by lock Paul O’Connell to make it 23-10 at half-time.
Almost immediately after the break the impressive Halfpenny scored again as Warren Gatland‘s men picked up where they had left off.
Tom Carter doubled his own try tally moments later as the Tahs fought back to 30-17 but a fourth Halfpenny penalty and a Tom Croft try made it 40-17 with the Leicester Tigers flanker swatted away the covering defence before racing in for a converted score, taking the tourists to forty points.
A half-dozen replacements, including scrum half Ben Youngs, continued the good work and it was his pass that led to centre Jonathan Davies coasting over for a fifth Lions score late on to round up a fine display.
The Lions will now face the Brumbies in Canberra on Tuesday before the first test in Brisbane next Saturday.
For the Lions:
Tries: Sexton, Halfpenny 2, Croft, Davies
Conversions:  Halfpenny 4, Farrell
Penalties:  Halfpenny 4
For the Waratahs:
Tries:  Carter 2
Conversions:  McKibbin 2
Penalty:  McKibbin
British & Irish Lions: Leigh Halfpenny; Sean Maitland, Jonathan Davies, Jamie Roberts, Simon Zebo; Jonny Sexton, Mike Phillips; Mako Vunipola, Tom Youngs, Adam Jones; Alun-Wyn Jones, Paul O’Connell; Tom Croft, Sam Warburton (Capt.), Jamie Heaslip.
Replacements: Richard Hibbard, Alex Corbisiero, Dan Cole, Geoff Parling, Dan Lydiate, Ben Youngs, Owen Farrell, Rob Kearney.
Waratahs: Drew Mitchell; Cam Crawford, Rob Horne, Tom Carter, Peter Betham; Bernard Foley, Brendan McKibbin; Jeremy Tilse, John Ulugia, Paddy Ryan; Will Skelton, Ollie Atkins; Jed Holloway, Pat McCutcheon, Dave Dennis (Capt.).
Replacements: Luke Holmes, Richard Aho, Sam Talakai, Lopeti Timani, AJ Gilbert, Matt Lucas, Ben Volavola, Tom Kingston.
SAM KNIBBS
Read the full report and analysis from Nick Cain and Matthew Emery in Australia in tomorrow’s edition of The Rugby Paper.