A win and no injuries...that will do nicely for starters

THE opening match of a Lions tour is just plain difficult and bloody awkward and especially so in New Zealand, so I’m actually pretty upbeat after Warren Gatland’s team quarried out the win.

You always look for the positives and there were quite a few. A win, albeit scrappy, and no major injuries. In 2005 we played pretty well against the Bay of Plenty but it came at a heavy cost with Lawrence Dallaglio suffering a horrible ankle injury early in the game. Yesterday was also a timely wake-up call as to the reality of rugby in New Zealand and deep down Gatland will be happy enough. A lot of first-night nerves have been dispelled and the endless build-up is over.

Also by virtually emptying the bench, a fair few of those who are likely to start against the Blues on Wednesday tucked a few more minutes of game time under their belts that they might not have expected. These opening matches are like a batsman building a big innings on the first morning of a Test.

You can struggle for form and you sometimes need a bit of luck but the main thing is to come through unscathed. Then you can kick on. Individually the biggest plus yesterday was the form of Taulupe Faletau, who was everywhere and made an incredible try-saving tackle.

Faletau was world class and showed that the widespread assumption that his cousin Billy Vunipola would be the automatic No 8 for the Tests was wrong. After an injury-affected season Faletau was fresh and fit.

That is a huge bonus for the Lions, because if you go into the tour and the Tests feeling you are already a man down, that one of your gun players is missing, it can affect you.

Any danger of that has been dispelled. Billy Vunipola is a terrific player but with Faletau in this form the Lions have a player of equal stature and ability to step into his shoes. Watching the Barbarians — who have had scarcely more preparation time than the Lions — reminded me why New Zealand are so good.

Those involved were fringe Super Rugby players, mainly stalwarts of the Mitre 10 Provincial competition, but they were packed with instinctive players. Their basics were excellent.

What the match did was make me excited about the matches ahead. The strength of those Super Rugby teams and the Maoris that lay in wait is phenomenal and they are revved up for this tour.

The Lions will have to respond in kind, which they are eminently capable of.