Two Jack Nowell tries helped the Lions to a comprehensive 34-6 victory over a depleted Chiefs side in Hamilton on Tuesday – but Warren Gtland insists his tourists still have to improve before they can beat the All Blacks.
The win – the Lions’ first midweek success after losing out to the Blues and the Highlanders earlier in the tour – came against a Chiefs side missing several All Blacks, but it will be no less sweet for Gatland’s troops who now turn their attention to the first Test against New Zealand at Eden Park on Saturday.
The Lions’ attacking game, often stilted so far on this tour, was far better and combined with the Lions’ defence, will leave Gatland satisfied. But he knows the challenge facing his team in Auckland.
“That’s something we’ve been working on,” Gatland said of his team’s attack. “It takes a bit of time. We’ve put a new team together, there are combinations of guys getting used to each other’s voices. We knew we were creating tries we just haven’t been finishing them off.
“From a defensive point of view we’re getting stronger and stronger in that area against the best attacking teams in world rugby. We score multiple tries week in and week out and we’re strangling them a little bit in the way that we’re defending too.
“On Saturday we’re up against the best team in the world in their own backyard, a place they haven’t been beaten at since 1994, so we have to take things up a level.”
Chiefs coach Dave Rennie acknowledged the Lions had improved throughout the tour and the test series might be closer than some think.
“When they settle on combinations and so on it will be an exciting series,” Rennie said.
Asked about the Lions’ expertise in the set piece, Rennie said: “They’re going to come up against a pretty good set piece in the All Blacks so they’re going to have to earn it and fight for it.”
Nowell was joined by Jared Payne in crossing the whitewash, with a penalty try also on the board as they secured a midweek success.
After the game the Exeter Chiefs and England wing was happy with his own and the team’s performance which gives the squad a boost.
“We wanted to play with a bit of excitement, score a few tries and finish that second to last midweek game before the Tests with a bang,” he told Sky Sports in a post-match interview. “Any try in a Lions shirt means a lot. For me I am thankful I could do it for these boys.”
Meanwhile, captain Rory Best was also proud of his fellow charges and hailed the team’s character as they picked up their first midweek win.
“I think we’re happy,” he said. “We talked about getting a bit of a reaction from this group and although the results haven’t looked great for us in midweek, we’ve actually put ourselves in a position to win games and win comfortably. We got ourselves in that position tonight and drove on. There’s a team spirit there within this squad and you saw it tonight.
“We really worked hard for each other even at the end when it’s easy to concede a try but you saw the way the boys kept marching forward and for a tighthead prop in the 80th minute to make a turnover it shows what it means to everyone.
“I couldn’t be prouder of a bunch of guys who picked themselves up off the ground and really showed how much it means as a group.”
