For eight of this starting team, their only previous start was in the defeat to the Blues a week ago. All told, 16 of this match-day squad were Involved in that loss, and eight of them are now two defeats from two. With the demarcation lines being drawn, this is in stark contrast to those who have only been involved in one or two wins.
For sure, it’s a 41-man squad, and it’s a cumulative effort, but it would have spread the feel-good factor more evenly throughout the squad had the Lions beaten the Highlanders and so virtually everyone would have been associated with a win.
"Extremely frustrating," was how a chastened Robbie Henshaw put it. "To be in the red shirt is a privilege and we want to win and do ourselves proud, do the jersey proud. To have played two games now and lost two games is pretty frustrating for me personally. I'm sure the lads inside are in a similar boat, so we'll have to move on from it but we need to be better at keeping the foot on the throat and finishing off teams when we have that type of lead."
Rory Best shared that pain. "It's a bit of a hiccup for us. The boys on Saturday laid down a marker and we wanted to pick that up. We're really, really disappointed to have lost that game. Having said that, at 22-13 we put ourselves in a position to really take a hold of it and that's probably the biggest disappointment alongside losing the game that we let it slip. At this level, at any level, but certainly at this level that's not acceptable."
Real stranglehold
“We do have enough class on the pitch to see that game off and in fact go on and take a real stranglehold of it. It’s disappointing for the whole squad.
“Like we did exactly a week ago we’ll have to dust ourselves down and in three or four days time we play another tough game. We’ll just have to get together as a squad and make sure that we’re doing the right things, that the guys playing tonight who won’t have a chance on Saturday make sure the guys on Saturday are prepared. That’s what a tour like this is about. Boys are disappointed tonight and we can’t lose them, because the preparation they can give the guys who will play next is essential.”
The contrast between the “midweek” and “Saturday” teams, even though their make-up is not yet cast in stone, was put to Best.
“Look, it’s obviously disappointing to have lost the game. We put ourselves in a position to win that game and everyone’s fighting, everyone wants to play in that Test team. We’re still 10 days away from it, it’s disappointing to have lost and disappointing to have had another little hiccup along the way.”
“For us, it’s about making sure that we prepare. That’s all we can do. Gats will pick the team on the Saturday, then the Tuesday, then the Saturday and we’ll see how it goes but I don’t think anyone likes losing.”
"When you get the best players from four countries on the British and Irish Lions, nobody likes losing because we're all competitive people here. So, we're really, really disappointed about that and we've to pick ourselves up as quickly as we can."
“It’s also important you give yourself a bit of time to dwell and reflect on it, maybe not so much sulk but sometimes you have got to let the pain of the defeat sink before you can move forward. Look, because it is a short turnaround, that time to dwell on it is a lot less but you have got to let that sink in to make you a better player, to push on now. It’s all about the squad, it’s all about Saturday.”
Test selections
Yet the players wouldn’t be human if they themselves weren’t consciously, as well as subconsciously, thinking ahead to Test selections, not least when, in Best’s case, he was specifically asked if he thought about this.
“I think if you start to look ahead to the Test matches you lose sight of what is important,” he maintained. “What is important for us is Saturday and it’s important when we name the team the boys that aren’t named that they make sure they prepare everyone else. Ultimately everyone wants to play in it (the Test) but only 15 will get to start and only 23 will be involved. It’s obviously not ideal to lose the game and it’s probably not ideal for a lot of the chances to lose the game because ultimately you are judged on performances and performances give you results.”
The interpretation at scrum time was, Best admitted, “very, very frustrating. We got penalised rightly so for the one that they kicked but there was another couple where their prop was on their knees and stuff and all you are really looking for is a bit of consistency and I am not sure we necessarily got it.”
“But having said that there was probably more factors in our control in the scrum that we can do better at and that is what we have to look at. We have to probably be a little more adaptable than we were and yeah, it’s frustrating. It is an area of strength for us and I don’t think we are going to let one scrum penalty completely derail us but it is something we have to take a look at.”
Ultimately, the abiding lesson of the night for the Lions?
"It's that ruthless. If we get to Saturday, or the following Tuesday, or Saturday week more importantly, and we go 22-13 up, we have to put a foot on the throat. That is what New Zealand teams are good at. When the game breaks up and you give them a chance back in, you give them half a sniff, and they take it."
