Henry frustrated but ready to box on

David Wallace was en route from Dublin to Poland with the Irish squad for their close-season training camp when they stopped off at Copenhagen last Sunday, where he took the opportunity to switch on his mobile. Ronan O'Gara rang to tell him they would be meeting in 24 hours, and Wallace thought O'Gara was returning home because of his facial injury. Then he realised he'd have to change his own travel plans.

"So I had to do a bit of a U-turn," was how Wallace described it. "The journey was a bit of a whirlwind, and then pulling on the jersey and going on the pitch, there's a whole wave of emotions really. It's kinda hard to put into words really. It's very special."

Made more so by completing a trio of brothers to have played for the Lions - a unique achievement. "I suppose it's something special for us, but certainly it's even more special if it's the first." Indeed, he's slightly stunned by that.

His bags went on to Poland, but as for missing out on Ireland's trip to Poland, Wallace tried very hard but unsuccessfully to keep a straight face.

"I've lost a part of me. All my friends and mates are out there, but I'm sure they won't miss me too much."

The English hooker Dorian West had, by contrast, arrived at 6.0 in Spain for a family holiday last Sunday evening. "I dropped the wife and the kids off at a villa and I was back in the airport within two hours."

He flew from Spain via Germany, Singapore and Sydney to arrive, like Wallace, at 10.15a.m. local time on Tuesday with just his sandles and shorts. As for "the missus": "She was a bit upset."

After an undistinguished debut, Tyrone Howe admitted that his first 15 minutes or so in the Lions' jersey wasn't that auspicious. "But, when certain things aren't working out for you just have to get your head down and work hard on the pitch.

"It was a strange match in that there wasn't really much pattern, so our best rugby came in fits and starts. But it's fantastic to be here, and I'd much rather be here than be in Poland."

As for the more serious business of assessing the Lions' predictably flat performance, Graham Henry admitted candidly: "It just shows that we need to have strong characters and box on. It was a frustrating game, wasn't it? It was a poor game of rugby.

"I'm sure people were disappointed and I'm sure the players were disappointed. There were patches of good stuff, but we didn't show the skill levels at times that we should have probably, and there were other aspects of the game around ruck and maul which were very patchy and messy, and turned the game into a very disappointing game obviously."

On another unfulfilling Iain Balshaw display, Henry conceded: "He's lacking a bit of confidence. I'm sure he'd be the first to admit he's not playing as well as he'd like to. He's probably a game away. He just needs a couple of tries and a couple of breaks, and he'll the confidence back and he'll be the Balshaw of old. It's just a matter of when that's going to be."

Henry admitted they had been looking for a better pre-Test fillip than this. "We wanted a big game with a lot of continuity and ball-in-hand rugby. It didn't happen, (but) I don't think you need to dig a grave and jump in because it didn't happen. You've go t to work out the reasons for that.

"I think some of them were self-inflicted and some were the interpretations at ruck and maul, and you've also got to give a lot of credit to the New South Wales Country team. We forget there are two teams on the field, and they played a good game of rugby and kept at us."

The Cockatoos captain, Bernie Klasen, said: "I hope our performance in this game shows the need for these type of matches, after all the talk following the opening two games of tour," added Klasen in reference to the Lions' 116-10 win over Western Australia and the 83-6 win over the Queensland Presidents XV.

Mind you, those were the days when the Lions were slightly different in personnel, preparation, desire and individual ambition. Just slightly.

* Following last weekend's injury concern regarding Keith Wood, Henry has confirmed that the Irish captain will be fit for Saturday's first Test at the Gabba.