Freeman plays his part as Lions secure Test series win with late victory

Freeman started and finished the encounter in front of a Lions record crowd of 90,000 at the MCG, though he was forced to spend 10 minutes off the field due to a first-half yellow card.

He returned to have a big say in a timely try for the Lions before the break, and Andy Farrell's men completed their comeback from 23-5 down late on thanks to a winning try from Hugo Keenan.

It meant the Lions backed up their first-Test victory in Brisbane and they can now travel to Sydney next Saturday knowing they are Test series winners.

Lions head coach Farrell joked: "Never in doubt, was it?

"The fans travelling out here deserve this.

"This is what Lions rugby is all about and the fans came here in their thousands so I’m absolutely delighted for everyone who made the effort.

"It wasn’t too great in the first half in terms of how we started in comparison to last week.

"We gave away back-to-back penalties, a yellow card and it was costly in terms of the scoreboard, but we found a way to get back into the game and that obviously gave us the confidence to take the game to them in the second half.

"We just felt like we could get into the 22 and we did, scoring every single time, so we knew it was in us.

"What a finish! I was screaming ‘pass it, pass it’ to Hugo, but he was never going to pass it, was he?”

Farrell added: “It’s fairy tale stuff.

"You can say whatever you want but to these lads, to our group, it means absolutely everything.

"These lads have dreamed of being a Lion all their lives, and the fairy tale is true, that we get to this point and we’re able to win it at the death like that.”

Ahead of the final Test of the series next weekend, Farrell said: “You want to win every game, especially in this shirt.

"But let’s take a breath because we travel to Sydney tomorrow, but I’m sure we’ll enjoy this tonight.”