Patrick McKendry: Hard road back for Warren Gatland now

Lions Coach Warren Gatland. Photo / Greg Bowker.

Steve Hansen spoke the morning after his team's first test victory over the Lions about being sore just watching it, and he was probably only half joking.

He, along with the rest of his management group, would have been mentally and emotionally, if not physically, spent after the effort put in during the week to prepare their men for the battle ahead, and it was a battle.

In terms of importance, the test was easily the most significant at Eden Park since the 2011 World Cup, and the match itself, with the early injuries to Ryan Crotty and Ben Smith, and the brilliant try finished by Sean O'Brien which brought the Lions back to near even terms, would have put them through a different emotional wringer.

Spare a thought, then, for Warren Gatland and his various assistants. They went through the same emotions and mental strain - on top of their three weeks already on tour - and their team lost.

How hard it must be for Gatland and company to pick themselves up from such a crushing defeat, not only for the second test at Westpac Stadium on Saturday, but for tomorrow's final mid-week match of the tour against the Hurricanes, one which must feel all but irrelevant now.

The Lions' coaches would have put everything into their preparations last week because, realistically, they had to win it to have any chance of winning the series. They may feel like the Cake Tin will provide more palatable hospitality next Saturday - at least it's not fortress Eden Park - but the reality may be very different.

The players will know they gave it a good shot against the All Blacks, one which may have beaten any other international team, but that they came up well short. Mentally, it is a bitter blow they may not recover from and, realistically given the strength of the Hurricanes' backline, the visitors could finish their tour with three defeats in 12 days.

Gatland will come under increasing scrutiny this week by the media who will want to see whether he doubles down on his suggestions that the All Blacks deliberately set out to hurt Lions halfback Conor Murray, so he as much as anyone desperately needs a victory over the Hurricanes in order to change the message.

There will be scrutiny on Hansen too, but, again he is coming from a position of strength because his team won.

One man who isn't taking any notice of what is being said off the pitch is Lions assistant coach Steve Borthwick, a former England lock with an almost brutally straightforward northern sensibility.

"We want to get a win," he said of the Hurricanes match. "We've come with a mentality of the next game is the most important one and that's tomorrow night. The players are eager and ready to go, and have prepared well for it. We know it's a sellout out against a really strong side and it's a great challenge.

"We need to improve and everyone is involved in that process. We need to get better - that's players and coaches and everyone around this team who has an input into this team and everybody does.

"Clearly we lost too many contacts [in the first test]. That happened and we ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard, we know that needs to be addressed. There will be changes, I'm sure, tactically - how things are done."

Borthwick didn't want to get into whether the All Blacks tried to hurt Murray despite being asked several times about it, but his response as to whether he had encountered that type of tactic in his playing days was interesting. "I've certainly never experienced that in my career."