British and Irish Lions 2017: Warren Gatland taunts All Blacks for boring rugby as he prepares for third Test

Warren Gatland taunted the All Blacks in the wake of Saturday’s thrilling second Test victory by claiming they have failed to live up to their reputation as the best attacking side in world rugby, and that they are only still in the series due to the British and Irish Lions’ inability to stop giving away penalties.

The Lions looked like they had thrown away a glaring chance to level the series at 1-1 when they conceded a string of penalties in the 20 minutes after half-time, with the total number of 13 against angering Gatland.

But two late tries from Taulupe Faletau and Conor Murray levelled the scores before Owen Farrell’s 78th-minute penalty sealed a famous 24-21 victory for the Lions, and Gatland did not hesitate in “poking the bear” after New Zealand’s failure to cross the try line.

The Lions have now outscored the All Blacks four tries to three across the two Tests, although it remains a fact that they have only led the reigning world champion for little more than two minutes so far this series. Yet that did not stop Gatland from fanning the flames in the wake of the Wellington victory, admitting he is still waiting to see where the All Blacks’ famed reputation for attacking rugby has gone.

“The ironic thing is this is the best team in the world and, for two Test matches, they really haven’t stressed us,” Gatland said. “They have squeezed us, made us give away penalties and that has been to our downfall, but we haven’t seen the expansive rugby that the All Blacks are known for and creating havoc.

“We’ve coped with that and if we can continue to cope with that and improve in other areas, then we are going to see, hopefully, a great Test match. Yes, we have poked the bear, but hopefully the wounded Lion from last week is still recovering as well.”

The series is now finely poised at one win apiece ahead of next Saturday’s decider back at Eden Park, where New Zealand have not lost since 1994, yet the Lions will delay their return to Auckland until Wednesday in order to visit the southern city of Queenstown in order for some rest and recovery. It’s something that the Lions appeared to benefit from in both 2009 and 2013, with three-day excursions on a safari in South Africa and to the Australia’s Noosa resort believed to be behind the third Test victories on the last two tours.

Gatland believes that easing the players’ workload proved crucial to winning the second Test, and he hopes that the same effect is taken from this week’s excursion to Queenstown where the players will be allowed to unwind at the start of the week.

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“We’ll look at it in the next few days and talk to the players,” he said. “We freshened them up a bit this week and made this week a little lighter. When we looked back on the tape of the first Test, our forwards were a bit heavy-legged. We did a double session on the Thursday [before the first Test].

“I don’t think it was just the double session, it was accumulation of three-to-four weeks of no days off, travel, the games, the training, walk-throughs, everything the coaches do, the meetings. So we consciously lightened up this week. The last two tours, going away somewhere Sunday, Monday, Tuesday off, freshen them up and have a couple of light sessions later in the week – that’s worked really well for us and hopefully it’ll do that.”

Of course, Queenstown comes with its distraction. The ski resort was the scene of England’s 2011 Rugby World Cup shame, the infamous alcohol-fuelled night out that involved 'dwarf-tossing' and shamed both the team’s reputation and that of stand-in captain Mike Tindall.

Gatland stressed though that there will not be a similar occurrence this time around. “No, this group of players is completely different,” he explained in reference to the 1993 tour of New Zealand when a second-Test victory was celebrated by the Lions a little too hard. “That was the amateur days. These players are true professionals, they’ll have a couple of quiet beers. The players are conscious – they’ll enjoy themselves tomorrow down in Queenstown and then they’ll start focussing on next week. I don’t envisage that being an issue whatsoever.”

The players better heed his advice, given they now face unquestionably the biggest week of their lives. Get the next six days right, and this Lions squad will go down in history as one of the true greats.