An honest Andy Farrell admitted that the British and Irish Lions “have to be better” after his side suffered a 28-24 defeat to Argentina in their tour curtain-raiser in Dublin.
The Lions were beaten at the Aviva Stadium after producing a perhaps predictably scratchy and sloppy performance, with a number of errors undermining some bright bits of attacking play.
Such showings are commonplace in the opening match of the itinerary for the quadrennial tourists given the challenges they face bringing the group together, though Farrell sought not to sugar-coat the performance as the Lions prepare to head to Australia this weekend.
“We made it a tough game,” Farrell said. “Obviously the first, and appropriate, thing to say is congratulations to Argentina, they capitalised very well on the back of quite a few errors from us.
“The whole story of the game is that we compounded too many errors and weren’t able to put the pace on the game that we wanted to because of that. I wouldn’t give the excuse [of a lack of time together]. We need to be better than that. The Lions players are good players coming together. Of course, we ask a lot of them. It certainly looked like we were a little bit disconnected at times. We will review and get something positive from that. It is all about how we move forward.
“We need to be honest, because if we are not honest with each other, how do we gain trust? We have to say it how it is. Losing hurts, especially in this jersey. We need to find solutions pretty quickly and be honest with ourselves because some good has to come from this.”
The Lions will fly to Perth on Saturday and face the Western Force in the city with an eight-day turnaround between their first and second games.
The schedule thereafter is hectic, with four more matches before the first Test against the Wallabies on 19 July.
Farrell will be boosted by the full availability of his contingent from Leinster, Bath and Leicester after they were largely stood down from this game having been involved in domestic finals last weekend. Toulouse’s progress to the Top 14 final, however, means that Blair Kinghorn will not join up with the squad until after their game in Perth.
Fellow Scot Duhan van der Merwe was seen with ice around his lower leg and foot after being replaced in Dublin, but Farrell was hopeful of a clean bill of health.
He said: “A few players were cramping, which shows where we are at, but other than that, it looks all good.”
