All Blacks miss the Lions - again

All Blacks captain Tana Umaga still hasn't seen the Lions play after a double-booking kept him at the dinner table during last night's Taranaki game.

Umaga and several other All Blacks didn't see the tourists' opening 34-20 defeat of Bay of Plenty on Saturday, taking advantage of a rare weekend off to spend time with family.

And they were all in the same boat yesterday during the Lions' 36-14 win over Taranaki, with only some leg work from centre Conrad Smith keeping them up to date with the score.

Social committee organiser and All Blacks halfback Byron Kelleher, who organised the dinner, wasn't flavour of the month among his teammates last night.

"We weren't too happy about it... he obviously didn't know what time it was on," Umaga said of the game.

"Most of the guys were pretty keen to watch. We had Conrad Smith running out to the nearest pub to keep us updated on the score."

One who did see the game was All Blacks coach Graham Henry, who spent the evening of his 59th birthday with his family.

"As part of the family time, they insisted that we watch the rugby," he said. "So we did that."

Henry wanted to focus on tomorrow night's test against Fiji so he offered only a brief assessment of the Lions' performance.

"I thought they were pretty clinical in the second half," he said.

"They came under a bit of pressure in the first half. The 'Naki played with typical spirit and passion.

"I came away thinking this is a pretty clinical Lions side and they're going to get better."

- NZPA