Wounded Boks have homework, says Itoje

Next week is going to be even tougher

Towering lock Maro Itoje says the British & Irish Lions will be ready for a ferocious backlash from a wounded Springbok team in Saturday’s second Test in Cape Town.

In a tense opening clash, the Lions staged a fighting second half comeback to win 22-17 after they trailed 12-3 at the break.

After the Boks dominated the opening exchanges, the Lions enjoyed all the momentum in the second half at the Cape Town Stadium.

Man of the Match Itoje believes the Lions were full value for their win.

“In the first half we came out with a decent intensity, but not the intensity that we needed to,” he said.

“But most importantly, to our detriment we were giving away a lot of silly penalties and were not as disciplined as we needed to be.

“In the second half we came out with a higher intensity and so were able to put more pressure on them. We had to trust ourselves more and our systems.

“The Lions have worked hard here in South Africa behind the scenes. We back ourselves to play for the full 80. It was not a surprise, we just had to show more faith in our ability.

“South Africa are big on analysis, they will pick out trends and ways they can improve.

“They are just going to come with a higher intensity. They will come harder at the scrum, line-out and their kicking game. That is probably where they got the most out of us, so they will look to attack that.

“We need to be better in all three of those areas, especially our kicking game and breakdown.

“Game-by-game we are getting better and learning lessons. Looking back at the 2001 series in Australia, they [the Lions] won the first Test quite convincingly, but then lost the next two.

“We are happy with the win, but we know we need to be better next week.”

Lions head coach Warren Gatland says the Boks will come charging out of the gates in round two of the series.

“South Africa will be hurt from this because they’re an incredibly proud nation and world champions,” he said.

“So the second Test will be even bigger and tougher.

“From our point of view, you win that first one and no matter what happens, you’re going to the last weekend.

“Next week will be even bigger and tougher, I would expect.

“From our point of view, you win that first one and you know that no matter what happens, you’re going to the last weekend of the series.

“That keeps everyone engaged and really interested in it. For us, we feel like there’s an awful lot more in us too.

“From a conditioning point of view, it looks like we’re getting stronger and stronger and are able to keep the intensity and the pace going for the whole 80 minutes.

“That’s a really pleasing aspect of how hard we’ve worked over the last six weeks or so.

“The message at half-time was that we’re still in the arm wrestle. Let’s keep our patience and we will get chances. Don’t force things.

“In that second half, we got stronger and stronger and got ourselves back into the game, but it was a really tough and tight Test match that could have gone either way.

“We came from behind and finished really strongly. I thought the last few minutes we were excellent.

“You look at it for both teams and know that it was a bounce of the ball, it could have gone any way. There were a couple of big calls as well.”

We need to be better in all those areas, especially our kicking game and breakdown. Game-by-game we are getting better