Lions Tour/New Zealand - 38 The Lions - 19: No wonder Graham Henry made almost as impassioned a plea for the continuation of the Lions concept as Clive Woodward and Bill Beaumont did.
The Lions generate huge media interest and money, are like a red rag to the home teams, boost the local economy with an influx of 25,000 supporters, and sing and party all night long regardless of what happens on the pitch, where they roll over and have their bellies tickled like pussycats. The perfect tourists, you might say.
If the Lions were treading a little wearily by the end of the season, end of the tour and end of the third Test, so too was the script. Once again the atmosphere crackled. The haka, unlike on your TV screens, was sadly drowned out by chants of "Li-ons, Li-ons" even though home support was much louder here; the tourists started aggressively and went into an early lead, and were then blown away by an All Blacks side shorn of two leading lights.
As in Wellington a week before, when the Lions could have made a 7-0 lead into a 10-0 lead, here a 6-0 lead would probably have been 10-0 but for a wasted overlap and once more an Irish lock takes the blame. No less than with Paul O'Connell's sinbinning last week, this is hard on Donncha O'Callaghan.
The failure to execute the try was one of countless examples of the stunning discrepancy in skill levels between the two sides throughout the Test series, and even though the All Blacks didn't scale the heights, they were always going to win.
The Lions pack, virtually unchanged, performed creditably, Simon Easterby again giving them a foil at the tail of the lineout which can only leave you wondering, what might have been in that nightmarish first Test out of touch.
O'Connell, though again blighted by handling errors and, one suspects, more dispirited than most by the whole flawed odyssey, again threw his body into the contest.
No one flinched, Lewis Moody tackling relentlessly again, and they were well worth their mauling try.
That always looked their only viable route to the whitewash, and that the All Blacks outscored them by five tries to one here and 12-3 over the series speaks volumes. The Lions used more of a blitz defence which, for all its glitches, forced Luke McAlister to possibly overdo the kicking, but for a 21-year-old following on from Daniel Carter's ridiculous exploits it was a swaggeringly assured debut.
Of course, outside him he had Tana Umaga at his imperious best. His lines of running in attack and physical presence in defence were awesome. Man of the match here, and certainly player of the series.
McAlister's performance, and the way Conrad Smith played and took his try, also spoke volumes for the confidence Graham Henry, Wayne Smith and co instilled in their team.
The Lions' back play was lamentable, possibly the worst yet - hardly surprising given the constant changing that led to 15 backs being used in the three Tests, the resultant lack of cohesion, and the repeatedly flawed selections.
Typical of the ponderous back play was a moment in the 18th minute. Stephen Jones, again disappointing, worked a loop around Gareth Thomas and feed to Will Greenwood that was executed so slowly the latter couldn't move the ball on to Geordan Murphy and Mark Cueto.
When Ronan O'Gara executed the same ploy (seemingly the sum of the Lions' wit) after his belated introduction it at least allowed Murphy and Cueto to make some advance up the right flank. O'Gara should probably have started, or at least come in sooner.
Seven Irish players ultimately featured in the third Test, and eight all told in the series, and this is worth basking in a little. It wasn't so long ago, the last Lions trek here to be exact, when only two Irishmen were chosen in the original squad.
The tally reflects well on Irish rugby's rejuvenation since the turn of the millennium, even if it's somewhat ironic that in this supposed golden era of Irish backs, only one (Geordan Murphy), squeezed into the starting Test team and at a time when it was abundantly clear he was not anywhere near peak form.
Ironically, despite the premature departure of the badly-missed Malcolm O'Kelly, Shane Byrne's late call-up (though you wouldn't begrudge him it, he was lucky) meant that in a supposedly unexceptional era for Irish forward play, Ireland provided half the starting pack.
It might have been eight and no doubt in his crisis of confidence, Gordon D'Arcy must shoulder some of the blame himself for effectively ending his own tour. Nonetheless, you can't help feeling somebody could have put an arm around his shoulder or at least advised him better. And by citing "general fatigue" when he apparently had a number of ailments, Woodward hung him out to dry.
In any event, Murphy was badly exposed when beaten on his inside shoulder by Smith for the first All Blacks' try, though by then the defensive rot had started, with Greenwood shooting up and leaving the gap for Smith to breach the first red line.
Nothing exposed Woodward's myopic loyalty more than Greenwood's presence at midfield in the last minute or indeed the first of this final Test. It was somewhat fitting that his desperation pass led to Rico Gear's intercept and kick-and-chase final flourish. After virtually a year on the sidelines, it wasn't Greenwood's fault he was way short of his best.
The contrasting failure to recognise form endured right up to the end in the illogical treatment of Shane Horgan. Once again giving the Lions a fleeting glimpse in his sixth appearance of the physical presence they chronically lacked in midfield, he was then switched to the left wing, where he saved two tries. He was the Lions' best back, and yet having been on the bench in the first Test, saw four other backs promoted ahead of him in the subsequent Tests while he took ownership of the number 22 jersey. Like much of this tour, truly baffling.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 2 mins: S Jones pen 0-3; 8: S Jones pen 0-6; 11: Smith try, McAlister con 7-6; 13: Williams try, McAlister con 14-6; 16: S Jones pen 14-9; 21: McAlister pen 17-9; 24: S Jones pen 17-12; 39: Umaga try, McAlister con 24-12 (half-time 24-12); 48: Umaga try, McAlister con 31-12; 59: Moody try, S Jones con 31-19; 80: Gear try, McAlister con 38-19.
NEW ZEALAND: M Muliaina (Auckland); R Gear (Nelson Bays), C Smith (Wellington), T Umaga (Wellington, captain), S Sivivatu (Waikato); L McAlister (North Harbour), B Kelleher (Waikato); T Woodcock (North Harbour), K Mealamu (Auckland), G Somerville (Canterbury), C Jack (Canterbury), A Williams (Auckland), J Collins (Wellington), R So'oialo (Wellington), S Lauaki (Waikato). Replacements: M Holah (Waikato) for Lauaki (half-time), C Johnstone (Canterbury) for Woodcock (44 mins), J Marshall (Canterbury) for Kelleher (47 mins), J Ryan (Otago) for Jack (77 mins). Not used: D Witcombe (Auckland), N Evans (North Harbour), D Howlett (Auckland). Sinbinned: Umaga (8-18 mins), Collins (54-64 mins).
LIONS: G Murphy (Ireland); M Cueto (England), W Greenwood (England), G Thomas (Wales, capt), J Lewsey (England); S Jones (Wales), D Peel (Wales); G Jenkins (Wales), S Byrne (Ireland), J White (England), D O'Callaghan (Ireland), P O'Connell (Ireland), S Easterby (Ireland), L Moody (England), R Jones (Wales). Replacements: M Dawson (England) for Peel, G Rowntree (England) for Jenkins (both 49 mins), S Horgan (Ireland) for Thomas (50 mins), R O'Gara (Ireland) for Murphy (65 mins), M Corry (England) for R Jones (68 mins), G Bulloch (Scotland) for S Byrne (70 mins), M Williams (Wales) for Moody (76 mins).
Referee: J Kaplan (South Africa).
