New Zealand demolish Lions 21-3 in first test

A rampant New Zealand destroyed the British and Irish Lions 21-3 in the opening test at a rain-lashed Jade Stadium yesterday.

The All Blacks outplayed the Lions in every department, scoring two unanswered tries in a dominant display against visiting team who were up against it from the opening minute when they lost captain Brian O'Driscoll with a dislocated shoulder that has ended his tour.

Lock Ali Williams scored the opening try midway through the first half before Sitiveni Sivivatu, the latest in a long line of flying New Zealand wingers, finished off a wonderful 50-metre break early in the second.

The Lions' only score was a solitary penalty from Jonny Wilkinson, who failed to impose his imperious kicking skills on the game because of the constant pressure his team was under.

They now face a monumental task to become only the second Lions team to win a series here and to do so must win the second test in Wellington next Saturday and the third in Auckland a week later.

"We have to move on very quickly but clearly if we can't win the ball at lineout time we are going to struggle over here," Lions coach Clive Woodward said.

"The best team won fair and square and we have to address the lineout very quickly, especially when we tried to pick a specialist lineout team."

All Black lock Chris Jack was named man of match and said: "We are pretty proud of our performance.

"We got the ball a lot more than they did and they didn't get much chance to attack.

"We tried to take their strengths away from then and lineout was one of the keys to that."