If you need an indication of how much tonight's win affected Lions fans, well I'm thinking of changing my cell phone number after all these messages started flooding in from Poms and Welshmen before the final whistle.
The general theme was "a win's a win", but as I said to some of them "could you really watch that sort of rugby week-to-week?"
Defensively they shut down the Crusaders, and didn't give them the chance to play their usual flowing game. Several Lions made a nuisance of themselves, which was an improvement, but they're still lacking attacking flair.
I've got no qualms about the Crusaders getting beaten fair and square, but that's not a great advertisement for the game. If the Lions had won by the same margin, and both teams had scored three or four tries, I would have been happier. In New Zealand we're accustomed to seeing great tries whether it's at club, Super or All Blacks level.
I think it's an indication of how the northern hemisphere game is played. The Lions had a French referee, meaning it was different for the Crusaders on issues like high tackles, the distribution of yellow cards, turnover ball and what makes a static maul. There's quite a discrepancy.
