Lions forwards make progress but problems multiply in back division

There was precious little to write home about as the Lions restored a degree of authority to their tour of New Zealand by seeing off the second-best provincial side in the country in conditions better suited to an America's Cup race, but then, the tourists are not here to send postcards to their nearest and dearest.

There was precious little to write home about as the Lions restored a degree of authority to their tour of New Zealand by seeing off the second-best provincial side in the country in conditions better suited to an America's Cup race, but then, the tourists are not here to send postcards to their nearest and dearest.

They ruled the roost at scrum and line-out, mauled the Wellington forwards into the middle of next week and dominated possession to an almost embarrassing degree. Hell, they even won some ball on the floor - a significant achievement, given their failure in that department against the Maori.

Some cauliflower-faced graduates from rugby's school of hard knocks may have detected something beautiful in the cold-blooded, unapologetically forward-orientated approach of the Lions.

There was real conviction about their work in the bump-and-grind department - Brian O'Driscoll, the captain, spoke of a "sense of solidarity" - and once Ben Herring, the most eye-catching of a largely anonymous Wellington pack, disappeared into the past tense at the end of the first half, they took complete control. The courageous Herring was flattened so often by his red-shirted opponents that he ended the game as Ben Kipper.

In truth, though, there was very little of beauty in the tourists' performance. The back division, which had the look of a Test combination about it, did not cover itself in glory; quite the opposite, in fact, for the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, Jason Robinson and O'Driscoll were more than a little scratchy. There were mishandlings and misreadings, over-complications and under-rehearsals. The captain mentioned more than once afterwards that his side were "a pass away from scoring three or four more tries", but few could remember the occasions to which he referred.

The tries that were scored were decent enough. Gethin Jenkins, of Wales, far and away the most impressive player on either side, claimed the first as the opening half moved into stoppage time by supporting a line-out snipe from his countryman Dwayne Peel and accepting a neat scoring pass from Martin Corry. The second also fell to a member of the Red Dragonhood when Gareth Thomas, playing his first tour game, took advantage of an open-field fumble by Justin Purdie to wrap things up with a chip-and-chase score in the 82nd minute.

That, sadly, was about it. As John Plumtree, the Wellington coach, remarked: "Had we played the All Blacks tonight, we'd have had 60 points put on us. The Lions showed their hand out there - they have a big driving game and they go for territory. But they'll have to play a bit more rugby if they're going to win the Test series, because the All Blacks will punish their mistakes far more severely than we did. They need to work on their continuity."

He had a point, although it may well be that the Lions intend to take a tight game into the Tests and try to squeeze the pips from the All Blacks at scrum and line-out. "They're just like the South Africans - they're big and heavy and they keep crashing into you," said the Wellington No 8 Thomas Waldrom, who might, on a luckier day, have set up an important try for his side. Early in the second half, Waldrom was hauled down by the energetic Peel just shy of the Lions' line, but was penalised by Paul Honiss for holding on to the ball even though he was not held. Had possession been successfully recycled, the Lions would have had the devil's own job to keep the home side at bay.

As it was, Wilkinson's goal-kicking, brought into play by the dominance of his pack, was sound enough to keep the tourists ahead throughout the encounter, although he fluffed a couple of chances he might have been expected to nail. His opposite number, Jimmy Gopperth, hit the mark with two penalties of his own in the first half to keep his side in touch at 6-13, but with the likes of Jenkins, Danny Grewcock and the excellent back row of Simon Easterby, Neil Back and the increasingly influential Corry dictating matters, he did not trouble the scorers further.

Wilkinson was nowhere near as impressive as he had been in the pre-departure game with Argentina in Cardiff, when he spared the Lions the humiliation of a defeat on home soil, and his midfield understanding with Gavin Henson was rather less than telepathic. Telepathetic, more like. Ultimately, it was the Welshman who failed to go the distance, the Lions coaches replacing him with Stephen Jones for most of the final quarter and ordering Wilkinson to spend some game-time at inside centre.

Henson, the talk of New Zealand now that his girlfriend Charlotte Church has arrived in the country, did not look best pleased. Plumtree, who used to coach him at Swansea, duly expressed his sympathy in an ironic kind of way. "Gavin will be disappointed at being subbed for the second time on tour, but I'm sure Charlotte will give him a hug," he said with a smirk.

If the selectors ignore Henson's perfectly legitimate claims to Test preferment next week, a hug will be nowhere near enough by way of consolation. He will not feel much like singing a duet, either.

Wellington: Penalties Gopperth 2. British and Irish Lions: Tries Jenkins, Thomas; Conversions Wilkinson 2; Penalties Wilkinson 3.

Wellington: S Paku; L Fa'atau, M Nonu, T Tu'ipuloto (T Ellison, 83), R Kinikinilau (C Jane, 69); J Gopperth, P Weepu (R Flutey, 78); J McDonnell (capt), M Schwalger (L Mahoney, 60), T Fairbrother (J Schwalger, 83), L Andrews, R Filipo (J Purdie, 75), K Ormsby, B Herring (K Thompson, h-t), T Waldrom.

British and Irish Lions: J Lewsey (England); G Thomas (Wales), B O'Driscoll (Ireland, capt), G Henson (Wales), J Robinson (England); J Wilkinson (England), D Peel (Wales); G Jenkins (Wales), S Byrne (Ireland), J White (England), D Grewcock (England), B Kay (England), S Easterby (Ireland), N Back (England), M Corry (England). Replacements: S Jones (Wales) for Henson 64; S Horgan (Ireland) for Lewsey 69; C Cusiter (Scotland) for Peel 77; M Stevens (England) for White 77.

Referee: P Honiss (New Zealand).