Why pride and passion aren't enough

WELLINGTON was famously named after the "Iron Duke", but these Lions are made of lesser stuff. The best-prepared team in their history not only lost the second Test, and with it the series, but did so by conceding a record number of points.

The match started as a contest but ended up the Daniel Carter Show. The extravagantly talented All Black fly-half helped himself to 33 points and proved, beyond any shadow of doubt, that he has inherited the crown that once sat on the head of Jonny Wilkinson. As if to give physical confirmation of Carter's dominance, Wilkinson was taken off midway through the second half with yet another "stinger" on his shoulder.

The All Black's prince may have missed one kick but he didn't miss a single trick, leading the opposition a merry dance and displaying the sort of self-assurance that is shared by perhaps just one other 23-year-old, the real royal watching from the stands.

Coach Graham Henry said that he probably hadn't ever seen a better display by a fly-half and he called Carter's performance: "special", "outstanding" and "absolutely brilliant"; all that from a coach who is famously stingy when doling out compliments.

Last week, Carter said that there was a feeling that they had something special brewing within the All Black camp. The only reason to doubt him now is because yesterday's opponents provided an inadequate test. The Lions took an early seven point lead, never gave up trying and actually played with some spirit but they no more looked like actually winning the match than they did flying in the air.

Few of the Lions came off the field with their reputations enhanced but Ryan Jones, Lewis Moody and Simon Easterby worked hard in the back row and hooker Steve Thompson bristled aggression at the breakdown. Sadly, not one of the Lions' backs would detain the All Black selectors more than a fleeting moment.

Yet it had all started so promisingly that those fans who dawdled on their way to the match might have missed the first try. Having never looking like scoring a touchdown in all 80 minutes of the first Test, just two had passed when the Lions opened the scoring thanks to some opportunism from skipper Gareth Thomas.

From an attacking ruck near the All Black line, the Lions moved the ball to the short left side and, with nothing apparently on, Thomas cut inside where he found a huge hole to score under the posts, despite Mils Muliaina's best efforts.

Wilkinson kicked the conversion and then could - or perhaps should - have given his side a ten-point advantage when he hit the post with a long-range penalty.

Despite being one of the smallest men on the field, Jason Robinson still collected the rebound and only stupidity by Paul O'Connell spoiled the moment as the big Irish lock dived straight over the ruck, bang in front of the posts and the referee.

Scrum-half Dwayne Peel enjoyed a couple of sniping darts up the middle of the field and, perhaps for the first time on tour, the Lions looked truly rampant. But this young All Black side has wisdom well beyond their young years and declined to panic.

They weathered the storm, set up camp in the Lions' half and a brace of Carter penalties narrowed the gap.

When the All Blacks took the lead after 17 minutes they did it in spectacular style with move that went 70 yards and ended with Tana Umaga touching down to the obvious delight of the home crowd.

His opposite number Thomas did his bit to help, dropping the ball deep inside All Black territory. Umaga pounced and fed Carter, who showed his pace up the left hand touchline, running right over Josh Lewsey and handing off Hansen. The Welsh centre got back to make the tackle near the line but the damage was done and Carter made a simple offload to Umaga for the skipper to score.

New Zealand almost had another when Byron Kelleher was only stopped a few yards from the line by Thomas. But they weren't denied for long as a move from the training ground opened up the red defence with almost every All Black back having a hand or two in sending Sitiveni Sivivatu over in the corner. Umaga took the ball up, Carter looped, Mauger popped off the floor and Rico Gear delivered the scoring pass to give his opposite winger the try. It was back play of the very highest order and it was only ever going to come from one team in this encounter.

When the Lions had a similar position early in the second half, they ran a dummy miss that could be read from the back of the stands and Gear pole-axed Shane Williams who promptly coughed up yet another turnover.

In between these two tries, the fly-halves swapped penalties, with two to Wilkinson and one to Carter, which meant that the All Blacks enjoyed a 21-13 lead at half time. But if it was close at the break it was all over bar the crying five minutes into the second half, thanks almost exclusively to Carter.

The fly-half kicked an early penalty and then both started and finished off another silk smooth backs' move that was only spoiled by an obstruction, Rodney So'oialo on Williams, that witnessed the winger complaining bitterly to the match officials. Carter fed Umaga off the floor, the skipper made a beautiful pass out of the back of his hand and when the ball was worked back to the fly-half, he won the race to his own inch-perfect grubber kick .

The intervention of the video referee allowed the hero of the hour a breather before he knocked over the touchline conversion with nonchalant ease. Not long afterwards, Carter fielded a Lewsey clearance, bumped off both the Lions' fullback and Wilkinson as though two of England's top tacklers were nothing more than an minor inconvenience, and rounded off the play with yet another penalty in front of the posts.

Simon Easterby muscled his way over in the corner for the Lions' second try but he left 15 minutes on the clock, which proved more than enough for the Kiwis to grab two of their own. Carter - who else? - got himself on the end of a sweeping movement that had been sparked by flanker Sione Lauaki's barnstorming run. He was able to ignore a two-man overlap, step inside the cover and score his second try which, inevitably, he converted.

Richie McCaw then got his reward for his usual industrious game when the peerless flanker muscled his way over the Lions line with four minutes remaining.

Carter's conversion gave him 33 in all, comfortably eclipsing the 25 that Matt Burke scored in 2001, to claim the biggest haul of points ever scored against the Lions. There is a firm feeling that this is just the first of many accolades that are headed his way.