British newspapers sing Lions lament

Britain's Sunday newspapers have been left bemoaning the series loss to Australia in Sydney.

Former Lions flanker Eddie Butler wrote in The Observer that the Lions did not score in the last quarter of all three tests and questioned whether they trained too hard.

"So, no fairy tale. That would have been asking too much of a tour built on cold analysis, cold reality and, unfortunately, cold shoulder.

"They never exactly crumbled in the last 20 minutes either, but the question must remain: were they so flogged in training that when the time came for the last surge, the tank was empty?"

Stephen Jones, writing in the Sunday Times, said the series was lost for a variety of reasons, including a disabling run of injuries.

"They lost also for technical reasons. They were dreadfully slow to wake up to the fact that the laws are interpreted in Australia in a completely different way, and that players are allowed to grub around on the floor in a manner deemed illegal in any other country.

"Did they lose because of Australia? Possibly. But the opposition which the Lions met in the test series was way less than terrifying. Australia were there for the taking."

Jones lambasted British rugby officials as "narrow-minded grasping fools ... with their snouts happily in the trough in the corporate entertainment areas as they watched over a defeat that they had preordained.

"The truth is that the Lions were beaten before they left Europe. They were beaten and beaten up, on the dire treadmill which has been created for them by the national rugby unions at home, by the owners of the top clubs, by those sections of the game desperate to have their pound of flesh, and by the individual countries' national coaches."