Ostensibly, Warren Gatland and his captain Sam Warburton appeared happy just to tick off a win against the Provincial Barbarians, ignoring what was a thoroughly underwhelming and error-strewn performance.
The New Zealand media have not been so kind to how the Lions played.
Gregor Paul for The New Zealand Herald said, 'The Lions won, but they reached unimaginable levels of mediocrity in doing so.' Looking to the matches which lie ahead, he believes that the Lions should be worried:
And given what lies ahead for the Lions, they'd have to be worried. New Zealand should be worried for them. Maybe even say a little prayer because they need some kind of miracle to survive the next five weeks if what they offered in Whangarei is what they are all about.
Writing for Stuff.co.nz, Phil Gifford felt that the Lions looked incompetent and felt that Warren Gatland's team had embarrassed themselves. He even went as far as saying the last time a really good Lions team was in New Zealand was in 1971, and also questioned how the Lions will perform later in the week:
How could a team stacked with nothing but internationals for so long look so leaden footed, so lacking in confidence they took kicks at goal instead of looking for tries from a lineout, so lacking in co-ordination and attacking ideas? If the Lions struggled to pin down runners in the Baabaas' ranks, how will they deal with the Blues on Wednesday, and how much should they fear the prospect of humiliation when they get to Christchurch next weekend?
Mark Reason for Stuff.co.nz believed only Toby Faletau and Ben Te'o enhanced their reputations in Whangarei, adding, 'And they aren't even British.'
He also had some especially critical barbs for Iain Henderson and Johnny Sexton
Gatland said circumstances had forced his opening selection, but by halftime it was looking like absolute madness. Poor Iain Henderson probably wanted to crawl into a hole. He looked completely overawed by the occasion. Donnacha Ryan must have been sitting at home in Ireland and wondering how he was ever left off the tour....
...Only when Owen Farrell came on for Jonny Sexton and immediately kicked the Barbarians back into their corner, did the tide finally turn. It was scarcely a moment of footballing genius. Nor was the up and under that followed a little later, but compared to what had gone before Farrell looked like Einstein.
Newshub.co.nz praised the performance of the Barbarians and said the Lions seemed to be 'nervous and disjointed' in comparison to their less vaunted opposition who showed, 'far more cohesion and overall desire that the tourists'.
"Is this the worst Lions team ever?!" yelled a heckling fan, and judging by the first 40 minutes he wasn’t far off the mark as the tourists trailed 7-3 at halftime after butchering several attacking raids with inaccurate passing and a lack of patience from close-range forward drives against an extremely committed opposition.
