Stephen Jones admitted that The British & Irish Lions had left themselves with far too much to do in the second half of Saturday’s 26-21 First Test defeat in Durban.
The tourists came desperately close to a remarkable victory at King’s Park, battling back to within one converted try of victory despite falling 19 points behind early in the second half.
"It's obviously a huge disappointment but we left ourselves a huge mountain to climb going into the last quarter,” Wales fly-half Jones admitted.
”Looking at the positives we created a few opportunities but we hadn't been clinical and we didn't take the chances until the last quarter.
”I thought the centres played particularly well, created a lot of problems, our pattern worked and our fitness levels were good these are the areas that are good for us and we can look to take into the next game [in Pretoria] but there are areas that we need to address as well.”
Jones is just grateful, though, for the fact that The Lions can still turn the series around.
”We are lucky,” he reasoned. “If this was a World Cup final that would be it, the tournament would be over but we are fortunate that we have another opportunity this Saturday to get level in the series.
”We take a lot of heart from the fact that when we play, we can play some good rugby and cause problems and that is how we have to go into this game [the second Test].
”As the game progressed I thought we grew into the game and we managed to get the ball through our hands a bit quicker, we were more efficient in the contact area and we created more problems and I thought our energy levels were good as well.
”We showed character and belief and when we do implement the game plan it works and that is our big challenge that we need to play not just for sections of the game but the whole 80.
”But we have to be honest with ourselves, work hard this week, address areas where we are not so clever at the moment.”