Report: Southland 16-26 Lions All the action as it happened Match photos from Invercargill

Sir Clive Woodward made it clear that none of the 22 playing on Tuesday would appear in the Test side on Saturday.

And Henson, after his man of the match display, said: "It's been a difficult week. I was pretty devastated not to get into the Test team.

"But I love playing rugby and it was just nice to have a full game tonight - a full 80 minutes."

Henson scored a try in either half and produced a bright all-round game to prove a point to Woodward.

We started well but then played as individuals rather than as a group Ian McGeechan

"I've got to keep on trying to play well and see what happens," he said. "It's a difficult position to be in because it's out of my hands. I'll have to see what happens.

"If there's a loss or an injury, I might be involved. But I'm in a difficult position, as I don't want that to happen."

Midweek coach Ian McGeechan admitted the game had been "very frustrating" but defended his players despite a less-than-convincing display.

"It was a big ask for a lot of them to play two games in four days," he said. "But that said, we made it difficult for ourselves and could have played a lot simpler.

Henson made Woodward sit up and take notice with two tries, however it was a weak performance defensively for his standards From B Have your say on Scrum V

"What's more frustrating - taking nothing away from Southland - is they are probably the poorest opposition we have come up against."

McGeechan, however, said there were positives to take out of the game and marked out a quintet of Lions following the win in Invercargill.

"I think Martyn Williams has been playing well," he added. "I thought Gavin Henson played well, as did Simon Shaw, Andrew Sheridan - when he came on - and Donncha O'Callaghan."

Southland captain Clarke Dermody said after the game his side could have snatched a shock victory over the tourists.

"They were never more than 10 points in front of us and, once we got that try after half-time, the tails went up," he said.

"It was close, a committed effort by the boys. It was just the odd dropped ball at crucial times, a couple of line-out turnovers on attack.