Warren Gatland tried his best to convey an opening win over the Provincial Barbarians in as positive a light as possible, even if the nature of the Lions’ performance must have been more disappointing than he had anticipated.
As an aside, he suggested that jet lag was a factor in the performance, and that their sponsored drive in a fleet of Land Rovers contributed to the back spasms suffered by Kyle Sinkler and Ross Moriarty. That apart, there were at least no opening night casualties, physically at any rate.
For starters, Gatland denied that his primary emotion was one of relief after the Lions withstood a late Barbarians maul to ensure a one-score win over a composite, semi-professional side who will assuredly be the weakest of their 10 opponents on this tour.
“No, not really. Not at all,” he said. “It was a tough match, very tough. We’ve learnt a lot tonight in terms of how tough it is to come to New Zealand, how motivated the teams are going to be against us.
“When I look back, four years ago we played the Barbarians in Hong Kong and had a comfortable victory that didn’t test us. Tonight tested us. In 2009, the first game in South Africa was up against a Royal XV in Rustenburg and we struggled a little bit in that opening game as well. So tonight was tough.”
Certainly, it was hard to disagree with Gatland's assertion that the Lions left points behind them, especially when one adds a couple of missed three-pointers by Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell to the couple of clear tries which were coughed up, primarily by Stuart Hogg.
It emanated from us not being quite as accurate as we could have been, but we will get better for that
“We created a number of opportunities, we just need to be a bit more clinical in terms of finishing that. We got held up over the line about four times and if we’re a bit more clinical and finish those opportunities then the game is reasonably comfortable. Look, it was a tough hit out for us but there were some positives and things to work on for us too.”
Asked if there were any particular areas of concern, Gatland said: “The concerns are just being more accurate and finishing it, you know? I think the players are going to be quite disappointed with themselves that they created those chances. The pressure in the game was stuff that we put on ourselves. It emanated from us not being quite as accurate as we could have been, but we will get better for that.”
It was in scoffing at the suggestion Sexton had lost ground to Farrell that Gatland revealed some of the squad are still suffering from jet lag.
Saying that it was “pretty unfair” to make such an assessment, Gatland added that the other members of the squad not involved in this opener trained hard on the morning of the match because a number of them are still struggling to sleep
In confirming that Sexton had not been injured prior to his 48th minute departure, Gatland revealed that Moriarty and Sinkler had suffered back spasms.
“We’ve done community stuff yesterday where the guys have been sitting in cars for five hours, coming up (to Whangarei) and probably still recovering from the effects of that flight as well. The doctors are confident they will be fine, but no injuries picked up from the match.”
At any rate, true to his word that all 41 players will be given starts in the first three games, the team to face the Blues next Wednesday will be entirely changed.
Asked to describe his emotions on seeing his son Bryn perform so impressively for the Barbarians, and to assess his performance, Gatland said: “It was special really. I thought he played pretty well, especially with his kicking game. They came with some innovation and did some things differently and they put us under pressure in the first half. I just had a quick chat to him and defensively we came a lot harder in the second half and we talked about that at half-time.
"He found that difficult in the second half with the pressure we put them under and the pleasing thing from my side were the guys who came off the bench and gave us real impact. I thought Owen Farrell was good and Tipuric was good. George Kruis came on and stole some lineouts so it's nice to see the impact from the bench. It was a special day for us as a family. It wasn't the best win for us, but it was win-win and I thought he played pretty well."
