Wynne Gray: Humdinger start with something for everyone

It was a marketing dream. Had the Lions lost their opening match against Bay of Plenty there was a danger this tour could have fizzled before it started.

Instead they made the best start in Lions history which must have provoked a collective intake of breath from all those in the 35,000 crowd at Rotorua and those watching goggleboxes around the world.

Then the Lions faltered as the Bay got some possession and examined a defence which showed some frailty. As the crowd sensed an upset, the Lions altered tactics and ground their way to a win.

It had been a tantalising exercise, a match of three parts and one which challenged provincial New Zealand to come and get them.

While they were disjointed for too long to thrill their coaching staff, the Lions hinted at some of the collective venom and power they can offer to unhinge the All Blacks.

The start was breathtaking. Clinical set pieces, boisterous interaction with loose forwards Lawrence Dallaglio, Richard Hill and Martyn Williams before the ball was spread fast and wide for three tries.

Maybe they started too well; they were victims of their own excellence and the Bay's sluggish beginning. The Lions could not hope to maintain those standards though they would not have wished to drop to some of the levels they exhibited in the second quarter. During that period they showed a lack of defensive communication, frustration, a lack of composure and were not attuned to referee Paul Honiss' commands.

However, the Lions gained the momentum which was imperative for their campaign, a result which will raise the interest levels another notch for the midweek match against Taranaki and the weekend assault against the New Zealand Maori.

Amongst the post-match verdicts from the Lions staff of Sir Clive Woodward, Andy Robinson, Eddie O'Sullivan and Phil Larder there was certainly unanimity, but there had to be questions about some of their harmonious judgments.

Ronan O'Gara punted superbly, but quite how he was even in a man-of-the-match contest was baffling. The scrums were labelled as a work in progress but Steve Thompson and Andy Sheridan had to muscle up against some subs to make the Lions scrum effective, finally, against a standard provincial pack.

It took Josh Lewsey, with two tries and one assist from fullback, to bring some perspective. He lamented the level of elementary mistakes, the turnover ball, missed tackles.

"When we kept it simple, set targets, sucked in defenders, it left us space wider out," he said.

That was the Lions in the first 10 minutes as they began with withering accuracy. It was the training ground stuff in an opposition-free zone as the Lions controlled the ball, the tempo, field position and the scoring.

As you would expect from a pot-pourri of players from four nations, the style was more manufactured than the intuitive Bay moves like the blind flick pass from Alan Bunting to Anthony Tahana which led into Murray Williams' try.

It was those sorts of instincts the Lions turned to when they needed to finish off the game, bringing on Gordon D'Arcy to complete an Irish inside back trio with O'Gara and captain Brian O'Driscoll.

The Lions had quelled the Bay fervour, they kept them to one second-half penalty while they added three tries. Pre-match, the atmosphere bubbled away with the kapa haka groups and music and there was no letup afterwards.

This has been a humdinger start to the tour with something for everyone.