Trailing 14-0 Early in the Match, the All Blacks Eventually Came Back to Win 41-35 in a Tit for Tat Affair in Johannesburg

Dave Rennie says his side had to "dig deep" to beat the Lions and he was pleased with their composure, despite the less than perfect performance. Trailing 14-0 early in the match, the All Blacks eventually came back to win 41-35 in a tit for tat affair in Johannesburg. Rennie said his side showed plenty of resilience, but weren't accurate enough and needed to go "through the middle" more often before trying to move the ball wide.

"The Lions got off to a flyer at the start of both halves and I think our boys showed a lot of character to fight our way back into that, Rennie said. "We created so many opportunities. You look at the numbers, we dominated defenders beaten and line breaks and offloads and so on but just probably didn't do the obvious enough.

"At times we'd throw a mis-pass when we'd just go through to hands and sitting defenders down and picking them off." Rennie said the Lions were impressive at Ellis Park. "They come to play tonight, they got off to a start, they got the crowd into the game and at 35-17 we were under a bit of heat so I was really, really pleased with the composure and our ability to grind out that last 30 minutes and finish in front." Rennie said while the game wasn't the All Blacks best, he said the squad will get plenty out of it, with many players having only had limited experience against South African sides. "Yeah, it's awesome.

We had quite a few test caps on the park tonight with a few experienced guys and a lot of young men who have played one, two or three games for New Zealand so it's awesome. "They're going to learn a lot from that. I think the fact that we had to dig deep tonight is important.

Rennie was also pleased they got through the match unscathed with no one suffering any injuries. He said the All Blacks were good in patches, but he said they often weren't as patient as they probably should have been. "At times we tried to play too much.

There was a lot of space to kick that would have put them under a lot of pressure and they'd probably hack it back to us and now we get a chance to counter. "I think we controlled the last 30 reasonably well but just not as clinical as we need to be. Rennie and the All Blacks will now turn their attention to this weekend's second test against the Springboks in Cape Town and lock Patrick Tuipulotu, who captained the side against the Lions, may well have to back up against South Africa.