LIONS CAPTAIN SAM Warburton was incredibly positive in his post-match assessment of his side’s stuttering start to the 2017 tour, insisting victory over the New Zealand Provincial Barbarians is an important building block.
The tourists stuttered their way to a 13-7 victory in the opening fixture of their tour in Whangarei and while Warburton maintained a win is a win, the level of performance is of real concern.
Warren Gatland’s side were extremely off colour and despite some standout individual performances, overall it was an incredibly underwhelming start for the Lions at Toll Stadium.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Warburton said he ‘was pleased with that’ and it now gives the squad areas to work on in training.
“One out of one, I’m pretty pleased with that,” he said. “They played with nothing to lose, you could tell that and it was good. At least we have some footage now to work on D [defence] and some attack stuff as it obviously wasn’t perfect. It was the first building block.
“We’ll get together now and support the guys who are playing Wednesday. For us it is a Test match and the most important thing for us is winning.
“Each time we play it’s a dress rehearsal for the Test series, we’re treating every game like a Test match.”
Head coach Warren Gatland was similarly positive afterwards, adding that it was a good run out for his team as their preparations for the Test series against the All Blacks began in earnest.
“We got held up over the line four times and created some chances,” he said.
“It’s one of those games where if we had got two or three tries we might have got away. It was a tough game.
“It was definitely a good hit out for us. There was good energy coming off the bench, we made some changes early on and I’m pleased with the energy the bench brought, I thought that was important for us.”
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