Lions Tour 2017: How the Blues beat the Lions with the offload

Blues second-five Sonny Bill Williams offloads to set up Ihaia West to score the match-winner. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Another game, another lesson for the British and Irish Lions, and this time it is the need to contain the New Zealand players' love of the offload which should be occupying the minds of Warren Gatland and his brains trust.

There were elements of it throughout at Eden Park in this famous Blues win - from the incomparable Sonny Bill Williams, mainly - before he and loose forward Steven Luatua combined with two peaches of passes in the tackle to send Ihaia West away for what turned out to be the winning score.

It's tough to combat, and lethal when it comes off and unfortunately for Gatland and the Lions, they will see a lot more of it before this tour is out.

"It's something that's prevalent in our country and our teams," Blues coach Tana Umaga said. "We want to keep the ball alive to get that second phase play going to get in behind teams. If you can't stop that it's very, very difficult when you're going backwards all the time.

"The ability to try to stop those offloads - you'd have to think for about 70 minutes they were able to do that. We did chuck some to the ground but for 80 minutes, if we keep backing ourselves, and that's what we've worked on, we'll get the rewards for it. Also we have to make sure it's not willy-nilly all the time.

"We have to back each other up and know what your mate's going to do."

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Williams was a standout for the Blues for his workrate and ability to get his offload away to West in the final minutes when everything was on the line.

"Sonny Bill is obviously still coming back from 18 months away from the game," Umaga said. "He's had a stop-start season for us. We really wanted him to play 80 minutes because of what he can bring. Every week he gets better and better. We saw a step up and I think that shows the hunger that he's got to play at the top level. He was very good for us and that's got to be pleasing for the All Blacks.

Blues skipper James Parsons was ecstatic about a performance which he said stayed true to the team's style.

It shows how dangerous they can be if they align their natural flair and running game with discipline and structure. "Blues rugby won us that game," Parsons said.

"We set a platform and then Steven and Sonny took over and then Ihaia off the bench. That's the most pleasing factor - we played our game, our style.

Umaga, asked if it was his proudest moment as Blues coach, said: "I'm always proud of these guys.

"It was another proud moment for me and the players and the club to get that result and the way they fought that hard until the end."