A team in dark blue, led on by a bagpiper, wielding a claymore instead of performing a haka, and Stuart Hogg already on his way home? The Highlanders were certainly testing remaining Scottish favours for the Lions in Dunedin this morning.
Tommy Seymour did his best to revert that with the first try by a Scot on tour, but truly the Lions had this game in the bag at 22-13 after Sam Warburton’s try just short of the hour only to conspire to lose it 22-23.
Discipline was the main issue again, the interpretations of Australian Angus Gardner again proving problematic, but you’d expect a player of the calibre and experience of Alun Wyn Jones to be able to adjust instead of continue to get penalised. It looks like a tour too far for the great Welsh warrior.
The Lions lost a lot of momentum when they used their bench, an area where they should be stronger than the opposition every week. Even Warburton’s try came from pressure rather than slick execution, and once the captain went off just as he was coming on to a game, the Lions lost a lot of direction and didn’t see much of the ball again.
There looks to be a distinct separation now between the weekend and Wednesday teams. It’s hard to see Seymour, Greig Laidlaw, Jonathan Joseph, Jack Nowell, James Haskell, Joe Marler, Rory Best or Dan Cole getting a shout for the test team – even on the bench – now.
As much as it’s another defeat, there’s no reason to revert back to panic now. Gatland’s Saturday team holds the key.
Should the Lions have a bad day against the Maori, however, the Crusaders game begins to look like a blip rather than the tour-changer it should have been.
