Deans already sounds under pressure

This morning’s game against the Western Force in Perth will offer the British and Irish Lions management a far greater barometer of what to expect over the next few weeks than the testing but ultimately one-sided game against the Barbarians in Hong Kong last Saturday.

It is always satisfying to start off a tour with a win and given the quality of player made available to the Barbarians for that game, there was a chance that the iconic invitation side could spoil the party for the real tourists. The heat and humidity was always going to be a match-shaping factor and turned the odds very much in favour of the more prepared side. That was always going to be the Lions. The most pleasing aspect of the whole exercise was that all the players emerged unscathed from a potentially damaging exercise.

It helps when your set piece is dominant and the fact that the Lions enjoyed over 70% possession in the opening half gave Sergio Parisse’s side no chance. Warren Gatland will be thrilled that the only starting players with previous Lions experience — Paul O’Connell, Mike Phillips, Jamie Roberts and Adam Jones — were all superb and led the way for others to follow. In total 16 of the 24 new Lions in the 2013 party got to play and are now fully fledged Lions. That is important.