We've just been to the match reception and had to put up with the Aussies congratulating themselves and patting themselves on the back.

Defeat was very hard to take, because we had an opportunity and missed it.

We had our chances again and squandered many of them. We also suffered from a bit of ill discipline.

We gave away a lot of penalties and Matt Burke punished us with some flawless kicking. If you do that against the world champions they punish you.

It was all very frustrating, because none of the Lions were particularly tired. If anything I thought it was the Aussies who were tired.

However, I got an absolute kicking early on.

Unfortunately I got my body in the wrong position and got a real good shoeing.

We had slightly different tactics in this Test than the previous two.

We tried to play a territorial game, but the Australians defended well and turned over a lot of our ball.

They made life very difficult for us and that is why they are world champions.

On a personal level I didn't do anything out of the ordinary. I did a lot of defending, a lot of covering, but I didn't get much ball going forward.

Neither did my opposite number George Gregan though. But he has certainly been the best scrum-half I've played against and is someone who I aspire to.

The Aussies celebrated their series win in style after the game, which is just what we would have done.

Now we're off out for a night in the centre of Sydney. We haven't gone out an awful lot on this tour, so it should be fun, although there's bound to be plenty of banter flying around!

There are only a few days left for the 2001 Lions, so now we've got to enjoy it.

Over the next few weeks I need to chill out and rest. I need to sort my body out because it's very, very tired.

I've got to talk to my club Northampton and hopefully they'll give me some time off.

We worked very hard on this tour and had to work so hard at times that it has taken its toll.

Some of the squad have played their 40th and 50th games and maybe now is a time to reform the fixture list. I think we need to if the Lions are to continue.