GATLAND'S CRAZY ADMISSION
The Hurricanes were drifting out of the game. They were 31-17 down and having spent 10 minutes with 14 men, the fatigue was building up.
The Lions, with 25 minutes to go, really should have put them away.
But a number of factors conspired to change the direction of the game. The first was the decision by the Hurricanes to push Jordie Barrett from fullback to first-five and attack the line hard and use his o oading.
The second was the yellow card picked up by lock Iain Henderson for a tip tackle. And the third was the somewhat curious decision by the Lions not to use their bench.
They had stacked it full of the players who were late call-ups to the tour – the so-called geography six – yet none of them appeared other than as temporary injury cover.
The Hurricanes pounced and scored two quick tries to draw level and felt that they should have found a way to score once more to get the victory.
“Those players were called out as cover – that was the case,” Lions coach Warren Gatland said. “I know there was a lot being made of that... [but it was done] to protect as many of the test 23 as we could. If we didn't have those players there tonight then we might have had players on the bench on Saturday [for the second test] who might have been exposed.
“So much was made about devaluing the jersey and those things so we made a decision to try to get through the game with as many in the starting fifteen as we could.
“I understand people's views... we made a collective decision that we'd make them injury replacements or as HIA [head injury assessment] replacements.”