Wallabies win 22-12 to deny Lions a tour clean sweep in wild third test

SYDNEY (AP) — The Wallabies prevented a British and Irish Lions clean sweep of its Australian tour with a rousing 22-12 win in the third rugby test on a night of wild weather Saturday at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium.

Tries to wingers Dylan Pietsch, Max Jorgensen and scrumhalf Tate McDermott highlighted one of the finest performances by the Wallabies in recent years and came amid a wild storm that led to a near-hour pause in the game due to nearby lightning.

Having secured the three-match test series with victory in the first tests at Brisbane and a contentious, last-gasp 29-26 win last week in Melbourne, the tourists were seeking to be the first Lions squad to record an unbeaten tour since 1974.

But despite strong support among the capacity near 90,000 crowd, the Lions were never really in this one as the Wallabies won the early physical exchanges and moved the ball better throughout despite consistent rain squalls that swept across the ground regularly on a bitter cold and windy night.

“I suppose there’s obviously going to be frustration there because like we’ve said all along that we wanted to win win every game and rightly so,” Lions coach Andy Farrell said. "But the best team won on the night.

“Just said to the lads that on reflection, it might take one, it might take two beers, but they’ll be unbelievably proud of what they’ve achieved throughout this tour.”

Jac Morgan scored a try with 20 minutes to go to briefly give the Lions a glimpse of another stirring comeback like it did in Melbourne, but McDermott’s sniping try with just 10 minutes left sealed the hosts win.

A try on the siren by Will Stuart narrowed the final margin.

Despite the cold and wet conditions, emotions boiled over on several occasions in a feisty match as the Wallabies delivered a strong response after a week of reckoning that included questions from some of Australia’s place in the rotation for quadrennial Lions tours that also includes World Cup champion South Africa and New Zealand.

The aggression featured firebrand Australia scrumhalf Nic White, playing his last match for the Wallabies, who on several occasions was nose-to-nose with Lions forwards.

The tactic appeared to help the Wallabies and certainly engaged the raucous capacity crowd as the hosts enjoyed the greater share of possession and territory throughout.

From a 5-meter scrum the Wallabies took a series of one-out runs near the posts before spinning the ball wide and Pietsch found just enough room to dive over in the corner to give Australia a fast start.

Tensions bubbled over as Wallabies scrumhalf White and Lions hooker Dan Sheehan engaged in some push and shove, before Will Skelton forcefully joined the fray and the Wallabies were penalized.

Tom Lynagh extended the lead in the 34th minute taking a penalty as another rain squall pelted Olympic stadium.

It was Lynagh’s last involvement as he was replaced by Ben Donaldson for a head injury assessment — which the 22-year-old flyhalf failed — after a high ruck clear-out by Sheehan that was missed by the match officials.

The Lions, starved of territory for most of the half, came more into the game as halftime neared and looked threatening. But a huge turnover by Tom Hooper as the Lions laid siege to the Wallabies try line allowed the hosts to escape to half time with its lead intact.

Shortly after halftime an already wild night reached a new level. While play had been stopped for a serious head injury to Lions lock James Ryan, a match official entered the playing arena and advised referee Nika Amashukeli to escort the players from the field.

The big screen at the stadium displayed a message for spectators in rows 1 to 19 to immediately vacate their seats and seek cover on the lower concourses.

After a brief warm-up, play resumed about 45 minutes later and the Wallabies almost scored immediately but Taniela Tupou dropped the ball as he hit the ground close to the Lions line.

“We had been warned that there might be lightning, so we had a little bit of a plan,” Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt said. "And with that plan, we wanted to make sure that players kept moving.

“And the rest of the time, it was really just trying to get us organized for the restart of the game.”

Schmidt's Lions counterpart said he had never experienced anything like it in his long rugby career.

"No, I hope I’m not (to experience that) again actually," Farrell said. "Yeah, rigor mortis was setting in at one stage there for the lads, in the support anyway."

The second-try did come soon after when Jorgensen pounced on a fumble by Lions center Bundee Aki and sprinted 50 meters to score next to the posts. Donaldson completed the simple conversion for a 15-0 lead.

Morgan’s try came after a period of intense pressure by the Lions pack which eventually paid dividends and narrowed the margin to 15-7.

The Wallabies responded and when Lions replacement hooker Ronan Kelleher was yellow carded for offside the winning try looked inevitable and was duly delivered by McDermott.

The Lions scored again as the full-time siren sounded but it was the Wallabies celebrating a morale-boosting victory.

“I couldn’t be a lot prouder of the way that the players rebounded after last week after the feeling of, kind of disappointment that they had,” Schmidt said.

AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby

Australia's Len Ikitau is tackled by Finn Russell and Ollie Chessum of the British & Irish Lions during the third and final rugby union test between the Lions and the Wallabies in Sydney, Australia, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Australia's Nic White gestures as he leaves the pitch after being substituted during the third and final rugby union test between the Lions and the Wallabies in Sydney, Australia, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Australia players celebrate after Tate McDermott scored his side's third try during the third and final rugby union test between the Lions and the Wallabies in Sydney, Australia, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Australia's Dylan Pietsch goes over to score the opening try despite the challenge of Finn Russell of the British & Irish Lions during the third and final rugby union test between the Lions and the Wallabies in Sydney, Australia, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Australia's Max Jorgensen races in to score a try during the third and final rugby union test between the Lions and the Wallabies in Sydney, Australia, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

A sign warns of bad weather approaching which caused a suspension of play during the third and final rugby union test between the Lions and the Wallabies in Sydney, Australia, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

A sign warns of bad weather approaching which caused a suspension of play during the third and final rugby union test between the Lions and the Wallabies in Sydney, Australia, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he’s dropping — for now — his push to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, a move that comes after legal roadblocks held up the effort.

“We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again - Only a question of time!" he said in a social media post Wednesday.

Governors typically control states' National Guardsmen, and Trump had deployed troops to all three cities against the wishes of state and local Democratic leaders. He said it was necessary as part of a broader crackdown on immigration, crime and protests.

The president has made a crackdown on crime in cities a centerpiece of his second term — and has toyed with the idea of invoking the Insurrection Act to stop his opponents from using the courts to block his plans. He has said he sees his tough-on-crime approach as a winning political issue ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

Troops had already left Los Angeles after the president deployed them earlier this year as part of a broader crackdown on crime and immigration.

In his post, Trump said the troops' presence was responsible for a drop in crime in the three cities, though they were never on the streets in Chicago and Portland as legal challenges played out. When the Chicago deployment was challenged in court, a Justice Department lawyer said the Guard’s mission would be to protect federal properties and government agents in the field, not “solving all of crime in Chicago.”

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson’s office in a statement said the city’s reduction in crime was due to the efforts of local police and public safety programs. Chicago officials echoed the sentiment, saying in a release Tuesday that the city had 416 homicides in 2025 — the fewest since 2014.

Trump’s push to deploy the troops in Democrat-led cities has been met with legal challenges at nearly every turn.

The Supreme Court in December refused to allow the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area. The order was not a final ruling but was a significant and rare setback by the high court for the president’s efforts.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wrote on X Wednesday that Trump “lost in court when Illinois stood up against his attempt to militarize American cities with the National Guard. Now Trump is forced to stand down.”

Hundreds of troops from California and Oregon were deployed to Portland, but a federal judge barred them from going on the streets. A judge permanently blocked the deployment of National Guard troops there in November after a three-day trial.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said in a statement Wednesday that her office had not yet received “official notification that the remaining federalized Oregon National Guard troops can return home. They were never lawfully deployed to Portland and there was no need for their presence. If President Trump has finally chosen to follow court orders and demobilize our troops, that’s a big win for Oregonians and for the rule of law.”

Trump's decision to federalize National Guard troops began in Los Angeles in June, when protesters took to the streets in response to a blitz of immigration arrests in the area. He deployed about 4,000 troops and 700 Marines to guard federal buildings and, later, to protest federal agents as they carried out immigration arrests.

The number of troops slowly dwindled until just several hundred were left. They were removed from the streets by Dec. 15 after a lower court ruling that also ordered control to be returned to Gov. Gavin Newsom. But an appeals court had paused the second part of the order, meaning control remained with Trump. In a Tuesday court filing, the Trump administration said it was no longer seeking a pause in that part of the order.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to return control of the National Guard to Newsom.

“About time (Trump) admitted defeat,” Newsom said in a social media post. “We’ve said it from day one: the federal takeover of California’s National Guard is illegal.”

Troops will remain on the ground in several other cities. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in December paused a lower court ruling that had called for an end to the deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., where they’ve been deployed since August after Trump declared a “crime emergency.”

Trump also ordered the deployment of the Tennessee National Guard to Memphis in September as part of a larger federal task force to combat crime, a move supported by the state’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee and senators. A Tennessee judge blocked the use of the Guard, siding with Democratic state and local officials who sued. However, the judge stayed the decision to block the Guard as the state appeals, allowing the deployment to continue.

In New Orleans, about 350 National Guard troops deployed by Trump arrived in the city's historic French Quarter on Tuesday and are set to stay through Mardi Gras to help with safety. The state's Republican governor and the city's Democratic mayor support the deployment.

Ding reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press reporters John O'Connor in Springfield, Illinois, Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, Jack Brook in New Orleans and Adrian Sanz in Memphis contributed.

FILE - A protester confronts a line of U.S. National Guard members in the Metropolitan Detention Center of downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)

FILE - Protesters stand off against California National Guard soldiers at the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, during a "No Kings" protest, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)