Gregor Paul: What chance do Lions have after that?

Half the country, probably more, will have scratched a red line through the British and Irish Lions after their opening performance in Whangarei.

Game one is maybe not the time to condemn the Lions, make a bold prediction that they are doomed to fail, but then again the evidence to back such a claim was there.

The glass half full types will rightly look at the mitigating circumstances. The Lions only arrived in New Zealand on Wednesday and half their players are still locked into the wrong sleep patterns.

They are a composite side, bringing players together from four nations and have no established way of doing things - of course they were going to be a little disjoined. The cohesion will come, just give them time is a fair enough counter argument.

But that sort of analysis only fills Lions fans with false hope. The problems as they presented in Whangarei were significantly deeper than the players not quite yet knowing each other.

The real issue was that the Lions looked decidedly pedestrian in all that they did. The Lions struggled with the pace of the game - not so much physically, but mentally.

They didn't have the natural instincts to pounce on opportunities when they came. They didn't have the alertness, that intensity of awareness that has come, among other things, to differntiate New Zealand sides from everyone else in Super Rugby.

And that's the major concern for the Lions - that they simply won't be able to cope with the pace and relentless nature of the rugby they encounter in the next five weeks.

The difference between what was on view in Whangarei and what had been seen in Christchurch a few hours earlier when the Crusaders and Highlanders had played out a classic, was stark.

The Southern derby was frenetic without being headless. It was controlled, fast rugby, played by supremely conditioned athletes who have been exposed to world class coaching and sports science.

Lions coach Warren Gatland suggested the New Zealand Provincial Barbarians wouldn't be so far off Super Rugby standard as many think, but while it was a nice thing to say, it's not remotely accurate.

"There is a massive amount of depth in New Zealand rugby and there is not always a lot of diffference between a lot of those players out there who are knocking on the door and are pretty close," said Gatland.

"We know how tough the next few weeks are going to be and we know that getting that game under our belt today will hold us in good stead. There are obviously things for us to work on but we will improve."

When the opposition become highly motivated Super Rugby teams, the opportunities for the Lions will have an even shorter shelf-life and the reaction times have to be phenomenally good to see, react and expose.

So too will the Lions have to make a big jump in the quality of their basic skills. Not only were they slow to see what they should be doing, they were laboured in their execution.
Scrambling defence is an art in New Zealand and one poor pass can make the difference between a try being scored or not as the Lions discovered several times late in the first half against the Barbarians.

Game one is indeed a harsh place to write them off, but until they can provide more compelling alternate evidence, that's going to be their lot.

The questions will have to be asked - what chance will the Lions have against the All Blacks if they can only scrape past a rag-tag mob of semi-professionals who trained together for the first time last week?

How can the Lions possibly go from where they were in game one to clinching a test series by game 10?

Maybe they can do it. Maybe they can build gradually into their work as Gatland says they can. But today, and until they can change the picture by playing the Blues at Eden Park, the sceptics have to hold sway.