British and Irish Lions head coach Warren Gatland has hailed his side's dominant display in Saturday's morale-boosting win over the Maori All Blacks.
A week ahead of facing New Zealand in their first test clash, the Lions earned a convincing 32-10 win in Rotorua to make it three victories and two defeats from their five outings thus far.
The tourists cruised to victory after finding themselves 12 points to the good within eight minutes of the second-half restart, which Gatland believes will now stand them in good stead ahead of their remaining fixtures.
"If you look at territory and position we dominated things," he told Sky Sports News. "We had to tidy up a few things at half time but, apart from a couple of stupid penalties in the first half, I thought we played some good rugby. We managed the game really well and we squeezed the life out of them basically.
"We've been guilty in other games of just playing too much around the 10-metre line, putting ourselves under a bit of pressure, but we got some good go-forward ball, created some good opportunities and defended well. They never really put us under any real pressure, even the try they scored. We're really pleased with our performance. Up front the scrum was good and the line-out in the game was excellent.
"What's so strong about New Zealand rugby is that these guys play at that level week in, week out, and we're benefiting from that experience against the teams and the quality of the sides we're playing. Hopefully that sets us up nicely for the Test next week. By the looks of it, it's going to be a cracking series."
Next up for the Lions is a meeting against Chiefs on Tuesday morning, before that crunch clash with New Zealand in seven days' time.
Daniel Lewis
