The 2005 British & Irish Lions tour of New Zealand got off to a similar start to what weve seen in 2009. The Lions were under pressure and looked close to slipping up, but came right in the last ten minutes against an impressive Bay of Plenty side.
Both sides had fairly little time to prepare ahead of the match, and the first half was a mixed affair as each team dominated in patches.
The Lions stormed to a 17 point lead with two tries from Josh Lewsey, and one from Mark Cueoto before relaxing a bit, letting the home side back into the game.
Tries from Colin Bourke and Murray Williams contributed to the scores being tied at the halftime break.
In the second half the Lions came out looking more structured, and sealed the match by scoring three tries, through Dwayne Peel, Tom Shanklin, and Gordon Darcy.
The low point of the match came when Lawrence Dallaglio broke his ankle, ruling him out of the rest of the tour.
The final score of 34-20 was a satisfactory result for the tourists, but there were early warning signs that all was not right, resulting in a tough tour to come.
Time:
09:43
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