“Game on.”
That's how Richard Knowler of stuff.co.nz began his match report from Christchurch on Saturday, and it was a tone widely echoed around the New Zealand media.
Warren Gatland’s side stepped up and showed what they are made of with a hard-fought 12-3 win over the unbeaten Super Rugby side Crusaders.
The Lions badly needed a win and they got a win. There is still work to do but a win is a win. And there’s time to do that work – the first test isn’t for another two weeks with three more warm-up matches in that time.
“The Lions,” Knowler wrote, “a team that some said might go through their tour without a win after their lacklustre opening victory over the NZ Barbarians, just tickled-up the mighty Crusaders – and kept them tryless – in front of a 21,500-strong crowd dominated by their parochial supporters.”
Meanwhile, in the New Zealand Herald Gregor Paul rowed back somewhat from his claim last Wednesday that the Lions “were teetering on the brink of collapse.”
"Lions pride restored!" read the headline over the article in which Paul heaped praise on the tourists.
“Proof at last these Lions can play a bit,” he wrote.
“Finally, after two duds, they hit the mark. They gave a performance that revealed something about themselves and went a long way to restoring pride and credibility.”
His colleague, Patrick McKendry, wrote that, while many in the southern hemisphere might not have found the Lions tactics to be particularly pleasing on the eye, they were effective.
"It wasn't pretty, but it was mighty effective; their defensive wall in particular offered Scott Robertson's men very little in the way of opportunities and the constant high kicks, while a boring tactic for many in the south, was pragmatic and right for the conditions," McKendry wrote.
Tvnz.co.nz said that the Lions tactics were “a perfect recipe in freezing, slippery conditions.”
"Fears the British and Irish Lions will be Test pushovers in New Zealand have been squashed," the website said.
However, it wasn't all praise for the Lions across the New Zealand media. Referee Mathieu Raynal was always going to come in for a lot of criticism given the number of times he penalised the Crusaders in the scrum and he got exactly that from Paul Gifford on stuff.co.nz.
Wayne Barnes has been the scapegoat for a number of years now in New Zealand but, according to Gifford, Raynal has just taken over that mantle.
“We discovered he doesn’t appear to recognise the difference between a scrum being overpowered and a scrum being illegally turned.”
He goes on to say that “the Barmy Army would have loved the fact they [the Lions] won in the time honoured northern way. No tries, but a swag of penalty goals.”
Raynal also comes in for criticism from Gregor Paul, the New Zealand Herald writer ending his piece as follows: “the scrum was a bit of a worry for the Lions, though. They were destroyed a couple of times and would have been a few more had the referee been slightly closer to planet Earth when he made a few of his decisions to penalise the Crusaders.”
But the final line should go to Gifford, who summed up the Lions’ performances so far and set up what should be a thrilling next few weeks.
“The Lions looked terrible in Whangarei, better but still shaky in Auckland, but now they shape as genuine challengers. The test series now looks infinitely more interesting.”
