The Epic Centre Of The Lions

Wynne Gray Is a Former Senior Rugby Writer at the New Zealand Herald.

- Wynne Gray

SOMEHOW IN THE awkward aftermath of their drawn series with the All Blacks, the British and Irish Lions found time to vote on their player of the series.

They’d been through an uneasy presentation ceremony at Eden Park where none of the players quite knew how to react to the stalemate.

The Lions looked more content with the deadlock than their hosts and that was understandable.

If the All Blacks had been as accurate as their prematch intentions they would have sorted the series inside the first half. As it was they scored two tries and should have had a few more but missed their moments in the face of the gritty Lions resilience.

Eventually the All Blacks fluffed their lines even more and then lost the contentious offside debate with Monsieur Poite in the dying minutes of the test after the Lions had kicked their way to all square.

There were puzzled looks all round when Poite called time and those continued throughout the speeches and presentation to All Blacks skipper Kieran Read for his 100th test.

When he and Lions leader Sam Warburton hoisted aloft the series silverware, the pictures looked like a series preview rather than the end of six weeks’ hard graft in New Zealand.