Lions need new plan despite try of century

But for all its brilliance it provided little consolation as New Zealand ran out easy winners to take a stranglehold on the best-of-three series.

Beaten more comprehensively than the scoreline suggests, the Lions need now to win both remaining games to repeat thei r ser ies t r iumph in Australia four years ago.

Only once in the last 100 years have they done that and it was not against this mighty rugby nation. Outclassed, outmuscled, outsmarted, the tourists were given a lesson in finishing by the Kiwis’ second- choice hooker Codie Taylor, picking a pass off his boot laces to brilliantly score the opening try.

Also by kid dynamite Rieko Ioane, a 20-year- old marking his first start for his country with two tries after the break.

Boss Gatland admitted: “We need to be much more physical. There are several areas we need to be better at. We need to be tough on ourselves and honest in our performance.

“But a lot of those things are fixable. The All Blacks were very physical up front but it’s not as though they have played champagne rugby and thrown it all over the place.”

It was the Lions who produced the fizz, with full- back Liam Williams vindicating Gatland’s decision to pick him with a moment of magic.

With the Lions 10 points adrift, the Welshman received the ball in a desperate defensive position under his own posts.

Under pressure to clear his lines he instead bobbed and weaved past two All Blacks and ran to halfway before offloading to Jonathan Dav ies , who combined with Elliot Daly to put Sean O’Brien over.

“When they can score tries like that you’re thinking they should probably do that more often,” Hansen observed dryly.

The Lions could not. Not yesterday at least.

They succeeded only in