Rennie said there were no new injury concerns, though loose forward Anton Segner will miss the remainder of the series after undergoing surgery.
The All Blacks had to “dig deep” to beat the Lions, and showed good sportsmanship about it after the game. Picture: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images
While the All Blacks were not at their best, head coach Dave Rennie stressed that the Lions lived up to the challenge he expected of them during their thrilling 12-try clash at Ellis Park on Tuesday night.
In the hardest-fought match of the five so far, the Lions got off to blistering starts in both halves, matching the New Zealand national side’s intensity while at times dominating the scrums, breakdowns and aerial battle.
The Lions scored five tries to open a 35-17 lead going into the final half-hour before three scores by the visitors in 13 minutes gave the All Blacks a one-point lead that lasted until the last play of the game.
There, the All Blacks managed their seventh try to secure a 41-35 victory.
‘They came to play’
It followed a 17-point win over the Stormers, 54-0 thrashing of the Sharks, a 31-point beating of the Bulls and a 17-point victory over the Springboks.
There are now three Tests left between the Springboks and All Blacks in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, starting with Cape Town on Saturday (kick-off 5.10pm).
“I think our boys showed a lot of character to fight our way back into that,” said Rennie.
“We created so many opportunities. If you look at the numbers, we dominated defenders beaten, line breaks, offloads, and so on.
“But we probably didn’t do the obvious enough. At times we’d throw a miss-pass when we should have just gone through the hands, sitting defenders down and picking them off.
“But you have to give credit to the Lions. They came to play tonight. They got off to a start and got the crowd into the game.
“At 35-17 we were under a bit of heat. I was really pleased with the composure and belief to grind out that last 30 minutes and finish in front.”
All Blacks ‘dig deep’ for Lions
Rennie said his team had to dig deep for the win. And though they didn’t want to use late call-up Xavier Numia, they had to bring the prop on with 10 minutes left.
The All Blacks boss said they lost too many turnovers and races to the ball. They couldn’t find consistency in their game.
“But I don’t want to put down the performance of the Lions; I thought they were excellent. They made us work hard.
“We expected [a challenge]. It’s a pretty strong Lions side. They were very good tonight and credit to Ivan van Rooyen and his group. They came to play and for a big chunk of the game had us under pressure.”
The All Blacks finish with a record of 28 tries scored against the franchise sides, and 11 against them.
Rennie said there were no new injury concerns after the game, though loose forward Anton Segner will miss the remainder of the series after undergoing ankle surgery to treat acute inflammatory arthritis.
