British and Irish Lions 2017: Jamie George warns tourists must cut out penalty count if they are to make history

Jamie George believes that the Lions are on the cusp of something huge for rugby worldwide, but warned that they will miss out if they do not learn to cut out the penalties that nearly cost them the second Test.

The British and Irish Lions face a defining week not just in their quest to beat the All Blacks for only the second time in 129 years, but in proving that the touring side do have a place at rugby’s top table for the years to come.

Last Saturday’s 24-21 victory over the All Blacks not only levelled the scores in the three-Test series at 1-1, but earned the Lions respect in these shores that they have not experienced since the triumphant 1971 series.

The sight of more than 25,000 fans kitted out in Lions shirts in Wellington, forming the famous Sea of Red, was one to behold, but it could all have been meaningless if the Lions continued to fall the wrong side of the referee and concede penalty after penalty that was sending them to a series-ending defeat.

“The thing is we’d addressed it in the week,” said George, reflecting on arguably the biggest victory of his career. “The manner of these sort of games, you’re always going to be very eager and over-eager at times and if you look at the nature of the penalties – offsides and a lot of them at the breakdowns – it’s just being over-eager.

“Potentially there’s a lot to be said for being a bit more relaxed now we’ve got a win under our belts, and not chasing it. Maybe we’ll be aware of that and make a change.”

Despite the delight of claiming a first victory over New Zealand since 1993, there is no looking beyond the fact that the Lions have big issues to solve if they are to take the series on Saturday. The Lions conceded 13 penalties in the second Test, 10 of which were in kicking range of All Blacks fly-half Beauden Barrett, and on another day New Zealand would have been celebrating yet another victory and a fifth consecutive series win over the Lions.

Gatland has been trying to beat the idea into his side that penalties will them the tour, given how disciplined they were in the wins over the Crusaders and the Maori All Blacks as opposed to the first and second Tests against New Zealand.

George is in agreement with his coach, but he still takes heart from the fact that the Lions were able to rally from 18-9 down to clinch victory on Saturday, given that the number of penalties that went against them should have spelled the end for their series hopes.

“We take a huge amount [from beating New Zealand in New Zealand],” said George. “You need to look at the manner in which we did it. We made it very difficult for ourselves at times with our discipline I don’t think many teams can say they’ve come back from 18-9 down in those conditions to win the game so we’re really happy with that.

“[There’s] lots to move forward on now to try and build some momentum going into next week.”

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It is worth remembering where the 26-year-old George has gone over the course of the last five weeks. The hooker is a two-time European Champions Cup winner with Saracens and now a starting Lion, but he is yet to make his first international start with England.

He credits head coach Gatland with his pre-tour speech to the players that gave him the confidence to go on and make the Lions No 2 jersey his own, and believes that the fact he has ousted Ken Owens and Rory Best gives him a huge level of self-satisfaction.

“It’s been good, I think there’s been a lot said about me not starting a Test match before this tour but at the end of the day I’ve started a lot of big games for Saracens, European finals, Premiership finals, stuff like that and the time on the field for England over the last year has been quite high so I’m used to the intensity of it and I’ve enjoyed the added leadership of starting games that’s required. I’ve felt good and enjoyed starting the games.

“As soon as I got on the plane, the message from Gats [Gatland] was that he was going to pick the best players to beat the All Blacks, so I knew that I had an opportunity to do that.

“I think the one thing that I needed to do was to be confident enough to show my leadership, especially in and around scrum time and I’ve built into that the more that the tour has gone on. I feel really comfortable doing that now and it’s very easy when you’ve got people like Alun Wyn Jones and that around you, it’s pretty special.”