Dafydd James column: Great win but hard work starts now for Lions

12:31 04/12/2013
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  • From a British and Irish Lions point of view the win over the Barbarians in Hong Kong was a fantastic result.

    Conditions were very difficult, as you could see from the sweat pouring off the players but I thought Adam Jones had a superb game. He made Paul James’ life hell in the front row and as a result the Baa- Baas couldn’t get a platform at all. That made it easy for the likes of Mike Phillips to perform.

    Justin Tipuric was another pick for me, I thought he was exceptional and was everywhere on the field. I feel for him a little bit because the captain is Sam Warburton, who plays in his position, but the challenge for him is to play well enough to move Warburton over to the blindside.

    I did think it was unfair to single out Owen Farrell due to the incident with Schalk Brits. I’ve seen Phillips, for example, lose his cool so many times and I think the Aussies will try to needle him as well because he is a hot-head. Farrell’s a young kid who’s got a big responsibility.

    In my opinion he won’t start at 10 but he’s there and I think it’s harsh to talk about his temperament, everyone was going to be nervous.

    The Lions will take a lot from that game because it’s tough to play in a match like that though. It was a potential banana skin, do you hold back thinking that you’re going to get injured or do you think ‘I’m not going to be first choice’ and give it 100 per cent?

    You certainly don’t want to get injured before you get on the tour proper. But you would have to ask if that fixture is going to be a regular one because the Baa-Baas is seen as more of a social get-together really.

    It’s very much a boys’ outing until a day before the Test and then it’s all hands to the pump. You could see there was a big difference in class and while I am a big fan of the Baa-Baas and don’t think it’s the end for them I do think the Lions could have done with a sterner test, maybe against a team like Argentina.

    As it is the business starts now. They will jump on that plane to Australia and the media frenzy starts as soon as they land but they will be upbeat, quietly confident.

    I think Warren Gatland will pretty much know his Test team already, that’s how he operates, but if I was one of the guys on the outside I would just knuckle down and try to impress.

    A lot of guys can make their name on this tour. It’s just whether they can stay injury-free and keep their head in the heat of battle.

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