Lions coach Sir Clive Woodward admitted the opening victory against Bay of Plenty was tarnished by the tour-ending injury to Lawrence Dallaglio. Woodward was delighted with the way the Lions held their nerve to repel the strong Steamers side who had fought back from 17-0 down early on.
"We had one bad 20 minutes and three pretty good 20 minutes," he said.
"The positives far outweigh the negatives but Lawrence has taken quite a bit of shine off the day."
Woodward admitted the Lions were "a bit shaken" at half-time after romping into a commanding lead with three tries, only to let the Bay of Plenty back in for 17-17 at the break.
 |  Some of our one-on-one technique was a bit disappointing |
"We were playing some fantastic rugby and I had to pinch myself," said Woodward.
"There was some outstanding team play and individual performances but then we dropped off some tackles.
"At half-time we were calm but a little bit shaken because the game was almost over.
"But we cleared the air and started again and we played very well in the second half and came through very strongly at the end, so there's a lot to build on."
Woodward admitted that the Lions had work to do defensively but was full of praise for his side going forward.
"I thought there was some fantastic attacking play and some fantastic tries on both sides," he said.
"Against any team in New Zealand they have fantastic backs and back-row players and if you drop off tackles you're going to lose. Some of our one-on-one technique was a bit disappointing.
"I'm just delighted to start with a win and get the momentum going. It was a big step up from Argentina match.
"The tour's under way now. The guys who are
playing Taranaki on Wednesday are buzzing, they can't wait to play now It's all about moving towards this Test series."
Lions skipper Brian O'Driscoll said: "We got into our pattern very quickly but we took our foot off the pedal a little bit. Bay of Plenty are a great side, it was a tough, physical game and we knew they wouldn't lie down.
"We turned over too much ball and let them win a lot of ball on the deck.
"Tactically we got it right in the second half, there were some big hard hits going in but we played it to the corners and played to our strengths.
"The line-out was functioning pretty well and I think the half-backs looked good together and the back line put some nice phases of play together."
Josh Lewsey added: "We need to up the intensity, the tempo. We can't afford to miss tackles but we got away with it today.
"We have to cut out mistakes. If we do that we can start to exert pressure."
Bay of Plenty full-back Adrian Cashmore, a former All Black, said the home side should have capitalised more on the second 20 minutes of the first half.
"When we got our plays [working] we got good forward momentum and there was a lot of space out wide," Cashmore said.
"We blew a couple of try-scoring opportunities just before half-time, one in particular when we had 3-1 overlap."
The Lions play Taranaki in New Plymouth on Wednesday.
MMIX
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
