O’Driscoll A Happier Man

Lions captain Brian O’Driscoll expressed his satisfaction in the aftermath of Wednesday’s 23-6 defeat of Wellington. Ireland flanker Simon Easterby made his Lions debut in the victory.

– Post-Match Reaction (Wellington 6 Lions 23) –

Lions captain Brian O’Driscoll told Sky Sports 1: “I am pretty pleased – we had to compete in certain areas and for the most part we did that.

“There is some way to go before the first Test but I am far happier than I was on Saturday night.

“The ball was like a bar of soap out there and both sides made a lot of unforced errors.

“The conditions were tough out there, there was a swirling wind and the surface was very greasy. It was not there for an expansive game.

“We had to rough it out and we dominated the breakdown at last.

“We were one pass away from probably scoring three or four more tries and we are teetering on the edge of beating sides well.

“It was not exactly the polished performance we were looking for but there were a lot of positives for us.”

Wellington All-Black centre Ma’a Nonu admitted: “We just did not get enough time to prepare ourselves. We just went out there and gave it our all.

“I was very impressed by the Lions, they are obviously world-class players. With Jonny (Wilkinson) out there just controlling the game, they got us on the back foot all the time.”