Why did anyone expect anything else? It is hope that maintains the ideal of the British & Irish Lions.
The hope that they can, somehow, meet up once every four years, introduce themselves to each other, then take on the best the southern hemisphere have to offer.
That hope is all too often a prelude to despair. There is a reason they have only won six Tests in New Zealand in all of history. And, yet, there is still that hope that, maybe this time ...
A gutsy win against the Crusaders and a classy one against the Maori had given everyone the belief that this was not actually mission impossible after all.
__________________________________
Read more
■ Match report: Rieko Ioane try double sees All Blacks tame Lions
■ British & Irish Lions: Five classic moments from past tours
■ Kieran Read: All Blacks 'don't feel pressure ... we expect to win'
__________________________________
Warren Gatland, the Lions coach, hinted at as much when he suggested his opposite number Steve Hansen was chatting so much in the lead up to the first Test because he was worried. The fact they organised a warm up Test against Samoa was another clue to the same theme, so the theory went.
And the tourists themselves had been synching nicely, after the reality check of the first week on tour. They looked to have good reason to believe.
But, really? This is the All Blacks. Back to back World Cup winners. Undefeated at Eden Park since before Maro Itoje, the Lions lock, was even born.
The New Zealand players were probably more worried about remembering which haka they were supposed to be doing than the credentials of their opponents.
It turned out their confidence was well founded. A comfortable win felt all so inevitable.
They were just their usual relentless selves, maybe a little way short of their best, actually, given their line out faltered and they had to realign their backs because of early injuries.
The Lions did well, but still it was not even close. What will happen if the All Blacks have a bit more luck with injuries next week?
What will they be like with a captain who is 76 minutes fitter than he was ahead of this one? All daunting questions whose answers are best not dwelt upon.
“They didn’t play champagne rugby,” Gatland said of New Zealand in his TV interview after the 30-15 loss in Auckland.
They didn’t need to. One team were efficient, the other were not. The home team were basically presented their three tries. For all the Lions resilience in defence — making 165 tackles is an extraordinary effort — it was their own mistakes that brought about their downfall.
Two All Blacks tries came about because the tourists switched off twice in defence, and they dropped a high ball for the other.
The lapses in concentration were schoolboyish. Cody Taylor found himself with the freedom of Eden Park after a quick tap penalty by Aaron Smith found the Lions defence snoozing.
They scored a second try off first-phase ball, too, when the away side were apparently lulled into believing play was about to be stopped because of a knock on at a scrum, leaving space for Rieko Ioane to steal in.
And despite it all, there remains that nagging, masochistic hope. The Lions showed enough to believe they can get a share in the series in Wellington next weekend, if they do manage to right their wrongs from Auckland.
They did, of course, score the try of the match, acclaimed by Hansen as “one of the best tries you’ll ever see,” in his TV interview.
Another feature of a Lions series is the fact their heroes are often unlikely ones. Of the four players who touched the ball for that try, three had not been nailed-on starters.
Liam Williams created it with his spellbinding run, then found Elliot Daly, before Jonathan Davies — the only cert for the starting XV involved in the move — laid it off for Sean O’Brien to score.
It was a classic try, no doubt. Agonisingly, it was a moment to infuse hope the tourists can salvage this series, too. Despite the prevailing logic.
pradley@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport
