Warren Gatland, the British & Irish Lions head coach, bemoaned the lack of finishing devil in his team after they had been stopped inches from the Provincial XV line, or held up over the line, at least five times in the first half.
But he also revealed that several members of his squad are taking medication to help them sleep as they struggle to acclimatise to life in New Zealand. The Lions only landed in the country on Wednesday last week and Gatland said: “We’d have preferred to have had a week in the UK with the squad and a week in New Zealand.
“We’ve known about the schedule for 12 months and it’s difficult to change that. I think the powers-that- be in four years’ time will think about the schedule and the importance of having the right preparation and the right time.
“We ran the non-23 players this morning and they had a real blow-out because a number of them are still struggling to sleep.
“Hopefully in the next two days everyone gets into a cycle that will leave us feeling adjusted to the time zone and surroundings.”
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He admitted that he was disappointed with the performance. “If we were a bit more clinical then the game would have been reasonably comfortable,” he said. “We must be more clinical and more accurate in finishing. The players have got to be quite disappointed in that they created those chances. The pressure was what we put on ourselves.”
Gatland, who promised 15 changes to the starting team for the midweek match against the Blues in Auckland, believes that the Lions’ experiences in Northland sets the tone for the whole tour.
“It was a very tough match, very tough, so we’ve learned a lot tonight — how tough it is to come to New Zealand, how motivated the teams will be against us. Tonight tested us.” He contrasted the standard of the opposition in the opener in Whangarei with that in the first games of the other Lions tours with which he has been involved. “In 2009 we played a combined team at Bafokeng and on the way to Australia in 2013 we played a comfortable match against the Barbarians in Hong Kong. Yesterday was much tougher.”
Sam Warburton, the captain, was upbeat despite the mediocre nature of the Lions’ display. “It was good. At least we now have some footage to work on with defence and attack,” the Welshman said. “It obviously wasn’t perfect. It’s the first building block. We get together, support the guys who are playing on Wednesday and try to keep improving every week.
“It was penalties that hurt us. We kept letting them back in the game with penalties, giving them easy outs. When we are under pressure we have to bring those penalties down. It’s much easier said than done, particularly in that last 30 or 20 when we were getting fatigued. We gave them plenty of field position and better teams will punish us there.”
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He reported no serious injuries, though Ross Moriarty and Kyle Sinckler were suffering from back spasms afterwards. Gatland blamed a long stint in a car for both men as they took part in community activities the day before the game. The occasion will be remembered for the coach’s son lining up to inspire the home team against his father’s Lions. Bryn Gatland had an excellent match at fly-half, in front of three generations of the Gatland family
“ I really enjoyed it, it was a great game,” said the younger Gatland after the game. “You don’t get the chance again and we took that chance. We didn’t get the winning result, but we gain some respect and that’s what we wanted.
“We took it all in and fed off the atmosphere against some off the best in the world. Pre-game I was thinking about matching up against Sam Warburton, Johnny Sexton and Ben Te’o but as soon as the game started I forgot about it and I was just playing with my mates.”
Gatland senior has never made a secret of his delight that Bryn should have played against the Lions. “It was special really. They caused us some problems with their kicking game and came with some innovation. I had a good chat to him, he said defensively we came a lot harder in the second half, he found that difficult there. In the end it was a special day for the family and a win-win; we won, and Bryn played well.” Gatland now fully expects Bryn to change allegiance and support the family cause on behalf of the Lions.
