ALL BLACKS WORRIED
Gatland’s rallying cry
LIONS coach Warren Gatland says New Zealand know they will be in a battle when the Test series begins on Saturday. After a 32-10 win over the Maori All Blacks yesterday, Gatland (left) believes the pressure is already starting to tell on the hosts. He said: “I’ve been surprised by Steve Hansen, who is normally pretty calm. He has been doing a lot of press conferences and I can only take that as a sign of respect in that he is a little bit worried. “Maybe he is worried by potentially how good this team can be. We know we have got a big step up – but all I can say is that this could be a great Test series.”
LEIGH HALFPENNY produced another f l awless 20- point kicking display as the Lions warmed up for Saturday’s first Test in emphatic style. The Wales full-back has yet to miss a kick on tour and landed six penalties and a conversion in Rotorua.
And that should seal him a Test start after Stuart Hogg was ruled out with a fractured eye socket. Maro Itoje’s try, a penalty try and Halfpenny’s boot did the damage and calmed the tourists’ nerves after the midweek defeat by Highlanders.
And the outlook became even brighter after the match when coach Warren Gatland revealed Owen Farrell’s thigh injury is not as serious as first feared.
“We are hopeful that Owen will be okay for the first Test,” said Gatland of the quadriceps injury Farrell picked up in training.
“It was precautionary leaving him out against the Maori. At a pinch he could probably have played but it was important we didn’t take the risk and put him out there.”
But f l anker Ross Moriarty has been ruled out of the tour with a back injury.
Gatland has added Wales stars Gareth Davies, Cory Hill, Kristian Dacey and Tomas Francis, while Finn Russell and Allan Dell join up from Scotland.
Wales are on tour in New Zealand while the Scots are in Australia and the move came under-fire for using geographic proximity over ability. But Gatland claimed players from England and Ireland would end up too jet-lagged to join the tour from Argentina and Japan. The Lions will put their new recruits on the bench for Tuesday’s Chiefs clash in Hamilton to protect their front-line 23 ahead of Saturday’s big game in Auckland. Gatland added: “We found the first 10 days very difficult in terms of jet-lag and tiredness. “The players that came from Auckland and Australia will be able to fit quickly into this time zone.” The Maori stunned the Lions 19-13 in 2005 but this time they were wrestled into submission. The tourists’ attack is still yet to fire convincingly and they can expect New Zealand – who hammered Samoa 78-0 on Friday – to offer a far stiffer challenge. Promising breaks were undone by a lack of killer instinct in a frustrating first half for the Lions, who still led 12-10 at the break. The only Maori try came when winger George North continued his indifferent form by failing to cleanly sweep up a kick. Nehe Milner- Skudder hacked on and Liam Messam finished.