Coach Warren Gatland has defended the British and Irish Lions’ sloppy handling and the fixturing of their tour-opener after an Asian heatwave took the sizzle out of their 59-8 rout on Saturday night.
The Lions managed to cross for eight tries against a disappointing Barbarians outfit but the sweltering conditions, with 30-degree heat and high humidity, contributed to a error-riddled game at Hong Kong Stadium.
The handling bordered on abysmal in the first half as neither side could come to terms with the slippery ball in front of 28,693 frustrated fans desperate for a free-flowing encounter.
English five-eighth Owen Farrell was the biggest culprit and did his No.10 hopes for the three-Test series against the Wallabies no help at all.
In contrast, Irish playmaker Jonny Sexton, who will start in Wednesday night’s clash with the Western Force in Perth, produced an impressive 21-minute cameo as he hardly put a foot or pass wrong.
But Kiwi mentor Gatland stressed he was pleased with the performance and all his charges despite the high mistake-rate.
“It was a good run out and what we wanted,” he said.
“There was no one who I was unhappy with their performance.”
But if Brisbane can turn on a warm winter’s day on June 22 then the Wallabies should start favourites in the first Test if the Lions’ sloppy start is anything to go by.
Most pleasing for Gatland was that all 23 players emerged unscathed on a soft ground which was badly cut up, especially at scrum time.
The pre-match criticism of scheduling of the opening match in Hong Kong, home to the global headquarters of Lions primary sponsor HSBC, was well aimed as the sweltering conditions proved.
“Talking to the players, they said the ball was like a bar of soap with the heat and humidity,” said Gatland, who would not question the location of the fixture and looked on the bright side.
“We’ve got to realise that in any professional sport there are commercial responsibilities.
“Probably the benefit we’re going to get out of this week is that we’ve trained in those conditions and played so, for an adaptation point of view, we’ll get a benefit of that next week.
“That is a positive in almost (supplying) the same benefits of spending a week at altitude.”
While the Lions scored six second-half tries they bombed a handful in the first half through poor passing, fumbles and wrong option-taking.
The Barbarians produced the play of the match when former All Black winger Joe Rokocoko punished a terrible pass by Farrell with a superb break before putting halfback Kahn Fotuali’i over in the 57th minute.
Three Welshman – two-try halfback Mike Phillips, centre Jamie Roberts and No.8 Tony Faletau – were the most impressive Lions.
Stand-in captain Paul O’Connell, who stopped the early rot by crossing for the first try in the 28th minute, rated it close to the worst conditions he’d ever played in anywhere in the world.
Barbarians hooker Schalk Brits will face a judicial hearing on Sunday after he was lucky not to be sent off for belting Saracens clubmate Farrell in the jaw behind play.
The South African was sin-binned by referee Steve Walsh for the ugly seventh-minute incident after he reacted to being held back by the young five-eighth.
