At long last, the Lions produce a roar

Mark Cueto gets among the century-making antics in Palmerston North last night, one of the Lions' 17 tries. Picture / Mark Mitchell

Lions' smiles on the park have been as rare as a fluid backline movement on this tour.

But they enjoyed themselves last night, running in 17 tries to poleaxe Manawatu 109-6 and totting up their biggest win in New Zealand (64-5 was the old mark, against a combined Nelson Bays-Marlborough XV in 1959).

It was a night to relish for a team under the hammer. Any satisfaction, however, should be tempered by the knowledge they were playing a woeful Manawatu team.

This fixture always shaped up as a good chance for the Lions to have a blowout. Granted it was amateurs v professionals, but Manawatu seemed to lack many of the game's basic skills.

"It was all pretty new to some of the boys who are used to crowds of 1000," captain Nathan Kemp said. "In reality, the boys will be back at work in the morning."

Fair enough, and it's not the Lions' fault that the opposition were poor.

"It's miles away from a test match, but to do what they did tonight they had to play well. We kept a discipline about what we were trying to do," assistant coach Ian McGeechan said.

The object of this exercise was to see players put their hand up for a spot in Saturday's second test team for Wellington, and none did better than little Welsh winger Shane Williams. His twinkling white boots ran the Manawatu defence ragged as he notched up five tries - a personal first - and positively thirsted for work.

He finished one short of the Lions' record of six in a game, shared by David Duckham against West Coast in 1971 and J. J. Williams against South West Districts on the South African tour three years later.

Indeed, the Lions were seven points shy of their touring record, a 116-10 win over Western Australia four years ago.

Williams showed up all over the park and sparked many of the best moments for the tourists.

It was fitting his fifth try brought up the century for the Lions. A test place must be his on Saturday.

The first try came in the fourth minute and the Lions were still scoring on the final hooter, when replacement wing Mark Cueto got his second try.

Eleven players got at least one try. Charlie Hodgson bagged 19 points, and his replacement, Ronan O'Gara, helped himself to a couple of tries and 20 points in his half-hour.

Aside from Williams, Jason Robinson scored a good winger's try in the right-hand corner and got several chances to stretch his legs.

Up front, Martin Corry, Simon Shaw and Michael Owen put themselves about purposefully.

Shaw provided one of the highpoints of the match, leaping to grab a restart on the Lions' 10m mark and charging like a wounded bull through and round pathetic tackling before being caught 5m from the Manawatu line.

Much was made of the merits or otherwise of the All Blacks' 91-point romp against Fiji a couple of weeks back. In a similar vein the trick for the Lions management will be to pick out what they deem relevant to the second test out of last night.