After a disappointing opening tour game against the New Zealand Provincial Barbarians, the Lions set out to put down a marker when facing the Auckland Blues.
As the bottom side in the New Zealand Super Rugby conference, this was considered to be the most winnable game for the Lions against the Super Rugby sides but it went very wrong as they lost 22-16.
Things didn’t go to plan when Rieko Ioane crossed early on after Jack Nowell was caught in a poor position. However, the Lions regained the lead through a great rolling maul and a CJ Stander try and a Leigh Halfpenny penalty increased the lead to five points.
Ioane had his second try denied by the TMO, a running theme throughout the match, for an earlier offside. Sonny Bill Williams had a try perhaps luckily awarded during the last play of the half and the Blues led 12-10 at halftime.
The game was decided by a scintillating score by Ihaia West after a superb offload by Sonny Bill and the Lions fell to their first defeat on tour.
There was many positives to take from a clearly improved performance despite the loss and plenty for the Lions to build on but the result itself will be a huge blow.
Here’s how I rated the Lions players:
