Gregor Paul: The All Blacks will improve - can the Lions?

The All Blacks and Lions face off before the first test. Photo / Brett Phibbs

There was always going to be one undeniable truth to emerge from the first test - the All Blacks have the ability to raise their performance in Wellington.

That much was never in doubt. As good as the tight five were, as cohesively as the loose trio played and as clinical and direct as the backs managed to be in the first test, the All Blacks have more to come.

Never mind the micro detail about the potential improvements they can make to their lineout, their cleanout speed and kick-chase defence, it's the big picture that matters.

We are in June and for the All Blacks, this is mid-season. This is the time of year the individuals are hardened without being fatigued. This is when they are on the way up athletically, fresh and energised.

Collectively, they are just two games into their test season. They are stitching their game together still and however well they played at Eden Park, they would be disappointed not to produce better as the series develops.

If that much is true of the All Blacks, what about the Lions? Do they have another kitchen sink left to throw? Can they be so confident they have yet more to offer in this series?

They are at the end of their season. The athletes are hanging in there having been on the go since August last year.

Their energy levels may not be so easy to replenish this week. Their legs may be a bit heavier and their bodies that little bit sluggish to recover.

That's not to doubt their desire or appetite to win this thing. These are world class players. Good athletes, good professionals and men dedicated to the cause.

But they are not super human and the reality of international rugby is that no team on earth has managed in recent history to lift their performance in the final two tests of their respective season.

If this Lions team can do it, then fair play to them, they will be rewriting the rules on what is possible. And if they are to have any chance of lifting, of posing the All Blacks more problems than they did in Auckland, they will have to make a number of key decisions.

It will start with personnel. Do they change any? There was unanimous agreement with the 23 they picked to at Eden Park, but maybe now they have to think of starting with Maro Itoje.

The Lions will also have to consider the more radical ploy of picking Johnny Sexton at No 10 and using Owen Farrell at second-five from the start. That opens their options to playing wider - to trying to open the game up earlier.

While that may have seemed unwise before the first test, they might have to reconsider now given how well they counter attacked.

And that essentially leads to the biggest question of all. Should they kick less in Wellington, abandon the lineout drive and back their handling and speed of movement to pick holes in the wider channels?

Or do they go the other way and kick even more, drive all of their ball and wind up their tight five to find the edge they were missing in Auckland.

Was it a failure of execution or a failure of strategy?

These are the questions that will simmer all week and make a test series such a wondrous thing. This is why a Lions tour excites like no other rugby series outside of a World Cup.

It is a game of intrigue, a game of nerve and cunning and whatever the Lions come up with in Wellington, they can at least be sure they have earned ample respect for the way they played in the first test.