Owen Farrell believes the British and Irish Lions need to keep working hard despite a 12-3 win over the Crusaders in Christchurch.
Farrell kicked all of the Lions’ points as the touring side made it two wins from three games and inflicted a first defeat upon the Crusaders this season.
Farrell told Sky Sports 1: “It takes time to get used to each other. We have just got to make sure we put that work in. We’ve got to look at the positives.”
Despite not scoring a try, the Lions kept the free-scoring Crusaders to just a penalty from Richie Mo’unga and Farrell said his side should be given credit for their display.
He added: “These are good sides, they are not going to give tries away.
“They’re a team that can hurt people from anywhere so to back it up with some good defence is impressive. I thought we caused them some problems at times.”
Lions captain Alun Wyn Jones added: "We knew we had to match them at set-piece time and we did that.
“We had to make a few platforms for the backs and we made a few dents, which we didn’t capitalise on.
“We had to show up today. There are still bits to work on, there always will be, but it was a huge improvement from the last game.”
Crusaders captain Sam Whitelock was disappointed his side did not show the sort of free-flowing attacking rugby for which they are well known.
“We’re not happy with the way we played but full credit to the Lions boys, they didn’t allow us to get our flow going,” he said.
Lions head coach Warren Gatland was pleased his team had denied the Crusaders a try in what was a tough defensive battle.
Gatland said: “We needed that. That was the most important thing, the result.
“The performance was important in that they’ve been averaging five tries a game. I thought our defence was outstanding, lineout was excellent, set piece pretty good.”
After recording a second victory of the tour Gatland is looking for more from his players.
He added: “We knew we were going to get a good performance. We know there are still a lot of things to work on and we know we can get better.”
