Gatland: ‘Tough games great preparation’

Despite losing 22-16 to the Blues at Eden Park, British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland believes the side will benefit in the long run.

Leigh Halfpenny’s late penalty put the Lions in position for a narrow win before Ihaia West’s superb try stunned the tourists in Auckland.

As a result the Lions suffered their first midweek tour loss since the 14-12 defeat to the Brumbies on the Australia tour in 2013, before the Lions went on to win the Test series.

Looking for the positives, Gatland believes the side will be better prepared to face the All Blacks thanks a tougher run of games than the squad four years ago.

“I don’t think there is going to be a huge amount of difference between the quality of the Super Rugby sides and the All Blacks,” Gatland told Sky Sports.

“There is so much depth in this country and these teams have been together for a long time with the Super Rugby season.

“There has been an improvement and I think we will see another improvement on Saturday. It is going to give us great preparation for the Test series playing at this level, learning from these hard, competitive games.

“In Australia in 2013, winning by 60/70 points in the first couple of games isn’t preparation for winning a Test match.

“This is brilliant preparation for the next few weeks and building towards the first Test.”

Reflecting on the game itself, Gatland was frustrated with the side’s high penalty count, which included a sin-binning for Liam Williams in the second half as the Lions early momentum fell away.

“I think it was a big improvement from Saturday. It was a close game and probably what hurt us was the number of penalties we gave away,” Gatland added.

“With New Zealand you have to try and continue to create momentum, and we lost a bit of that through a number of penalties given away, and regarding them stopping their offload game.

“There were long periods where we defended really well and put them under pressure, but one or two offloads and we know how dangerous they can be, so we will look to tighten up there.

“We were pretty unlucky with the try before half-time and then that is the difference in the game. You have to give them credit.

“I’m disappointed we lost that last lineout when we had the chance to put them under pressure, those are momentum changers.

“Generally we scrummaged well, our lineout was good, we were unlucky with Jared Payne not scoring early on as well. We can be positive about a lot of things and halving that penalty count will make a big difference for us.”