Wallabies will get better warns Henry

BRISBANE - Lions coach Graham Henry said last night that he was elated with the victory over Australia, but warned that the Wallabies would only get better in the rest of the series.

"We played very good rugby for long periods of the game," Henry said, but conceded: "We didn't play well in the last 20 [minutes].

"The Australians will be a lot better side next weekend. I think they were a wee bit underdone," the New Zealander added ahead of the next two tests of the series on Saturday and July 14.

"We've still got to keep our feet on the ground."

Lions captain Martin Johnson rated the win highly.

"I think this is one of the best test performances I've been involved with," Johnson said. "It's been a hard tour, but all the effort is worth it when you get wins like that."

Henry heaped praise on his forwards and centres Rob Henderson and Brian O'Driscoll.

O'Driscoll scored a brilliant solo try at the start of the second half and was named man of the match.

Winger Jason Robinson, who scored the opening try, was also praised by Henry.

"He just loves being out there and expressing himself. He just loves rugby, doesn't he?" Henry said of the rugby league convert.

He said that although the Wallabies had missed several crucial tackles, their defence would improve for the second test in Melbourne.

"Well, it appeared that way [that the Lions cut through Australia's defences]," Henry said.

"Over the years they have been superb. They missed a couple of tackles, but I'm sure they'll fix that up."

Henry said he would look at the videotape of the game to analyse some refereeing issues.

"We've got no complaints. We need to have a look at the tape and maybe need to talk about a few things.

"The players were a wee bit dumbfounded about some of the ruck penalties."

The Lions had prop Phil Vickery and flanker Martin Corry sinbinned in the second half, and Keith Wood was replaced temporarily because of a head wound.

Halfback Rob Howley also said he felt the Lions had slowed down in the last 20 minutes.

"The highest accolade is to play in a winning Lions test series," Howley said.

"When you're playing the world champions and you're a man down, it's always going to be hard. They wanted to play wide and we were a man down.

"Obviously there are going to be holes everywhere. The ultimate aim is to win the series, and we haven't done that.

"We only played 60 minutes yesterday and we need to play 80 minutes next weekend."

Stunned by the magnitude of the defeat, Wallaby captain John Eales said his team would find their own inspiration to turn things around in Melbourne.

"We just weren't up to the challenge, but there's a lot of lessons we can learn from this," Eales said.

"It's going to be very tough to come back from here ... But we're still alive though, there's still two more games to go and we're looking forward to the challenge."

Australia have never beaten the Lions in a series, but have pulled off some amazing comebacks in recent years. Last year, they lost the opening game of the Tri-Nations to New Zealand 39-35, but went on to win the title.

Australian coach Rod Macqueen said the Wallabies had only themselves to blame for their worst defeat in four years.

"We weren't happy with the way we played. We're a much better team than that, but you can't take anything away from the Lions.

"They played intelligent football and really made us pay for our mistakes. We just can't expect to play like that and compete against a side as good as the Lions.

"We've always said they were a very good side and we expected them to play very well, but we didn't know we were going to play like that," Macqueen said.

"There was no doubt the commitment was there, but they were able to make some holes in our defence, which hasn't happened for a few years."

"We can play better than that and there's no doubt we will benefit from that run, but so will they.

"I guess the positives were that we finally got some continuity going in the second half.

"However, we've got a lot of work to do before next weekend."

- REUTERS