Stuart Hogg the only Lions player out of clash with Highlanders

Stuart Hogg remains the Lions' main injury concern pending an examination by a specialist into the facial injury he suffered as a result of a collision with Conor Murray 20 minutes into last Saturday's meeting with the Crusaders.

"We're still waiting on a report back on Stuart Hogg, so we'll get that later this afternoon," said defence coach Andy Farrell today. There was better news concerning the other Lions player to fail a HIA, Jonathan Davies.

"Jonathan Davies, protocol-wise, is on track with no symptoms. Dan Biggar has been smashing me all morning, so he's fine and ready to go tomorrow night," added Farrell with a smile.

The examination will be to ascertain “if there’s anything else that’s going on there. We’ll find out later on today.” There are no plans as yet to call up a replacement, and there are still plenty of back three options.

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“Gats will give him all the time he needs to make sure he’s alright. We’ll wait for the outcome but I would think at this moment in time, we’ve got a pretty big squad and we’ve got a lot of people in place to cover different positions.”

The Lions conceded three tries to the Blues, only to keep a Crusaders team which had been averaging 37 points per game tryless and down to three points for the first time in a home game. Farrell is long enough in the game now to take the rough with the smooth, but even so was patently delighted with the improvement shown against the Crusaders.

“I thought our game management was outstanding against a very good side. I thought the most pleasing thing was keeping them down to three points, our discipline was better, but the main thing for us was that we got stronger throughout the game. Our collisions got stronger, our breakdown got better, our line speed improved.

“We’re bearing the fruits of the last three weeks. We’ve gone hard with the lads in contact, fitness, taking a lot out of the legs and with the travel, etc that would have had an impact on the first couple of games, but we’re ready to get battle-hardened for a Test match. We’re still ramping it up intensity-wise in training, contact-wise, because we’ve got to get up to breakneck speed for the first Test.”

The improved collective effort in defence can perhaps also be attributed to better players.

“Every system that you have – whether it be attack or defence – is going to be adjusted to the quality of player that you’ve got,” said Farrell. “You find on a tour like this that you put types of system in place and the lads go and run with that, and you work together along the tour.

“There isn’t that much time really to review and actually train. For example, over the last couple of training sessions, we’re having 13 on the field and you’re having a captain’s run, so there’s not much you can do in the captain’s run. The other 13, it’s not 15-on-15, so there’s not that much you can do in between in this first part of the tour.

“After this game, you’ve got a bit of a break – a massive break of four days until the Maoris – and then we’ve got two days until the Chiefs and things start to settle down, which is great for us because there will be a hell of a lot of water under the bridge.

“I suppose with the work you do behind the scenes in reviews and meetings, we’ll get better from there.”