BEATEN ALL BLACK & BLUE

WARREN GATLAND stopped short of saying they were pussycats dressed as Lions.

But Gatland didn’t hold back as he laid into his forwards the morning after they were beaten all black and blue by New Zealand.

He questioned their pride, the attitude they took into the first Test and how they now intend to respond to coming a distant second in the physicality stakes.

The All Blacks went one up in the best of three series not by playing what Gatland considers “champagne” rugby.

They did it by beating the best Britain and Ireland has to offer at their own game – what New Zealand boss Steve Hansen termed “down and dirty rugby”.

But an unimpressed Gatland said: “If I was playing on Saturday and felt I was physically dominated I’d be a little bit disappointed in myself.

“And I’d be doing everything I sport@dailyrecord.co.uk could physically do the following week to make sure I fixed that area of the game.

“If I felt my pride was hurt a little bit I’d be wanting to fix that. To do whatever it takes to turn that around.

“The players are aware we weren’t as strong in that contact area as we can be and that we have to improve.”

Of all the problems in all the world this was not one the Lions had expected to trip them up.

So much of what the All Blacks do is a class apart but the physical stuff? That should have been bread and butter for the boys from the north. And Gatland added: “Sometimes it’s an attitude thing, getting off the line and winning collisions.

“It’s as simple as mentally getting things right. But they got the better of us, I’ll be frank about that.

“They came hard and won the collisions, at the breakdown they were pretty brutal. We need to match fire with fire if we’re going to do well this Saturday.”

He didn’t namecheck Kieran Read and Brodie Retallick as destroyers in chief. He didn’t need to – everyone could see it.

The pace with which they came on to the ball and the force they applied in the collision made everything else happen.

That and some sloppy mistakes by the Lions that contributed to tries clinically finished by Codie Taylor and Rieko Ioane (2).

Mako Vunipola said: “We talked about being alive the whole game and not giving them any easy outs. They took advantage of us being lazy.”

The Lions boss was clearly in combative mood as he picked through the wreckage of his team’s 30-15 loss – and also accused the world champions of targeting his star player Conor Murray with a cynical tactic.

He claimed on more than one occasion New Zealand defenders dived at scrum-half Murray’s standing leg after he kicked the ball with Jerome Kaino appearing to be one of the alleged culprits.

Gatland said: “It’s a little bit concerning they are not actually