Henson roars back with two-try salvo

"Martyn Williams has been playing well right through and Gavin Henson played well tonight."

The Scot was not impressed with the overall performance and added: "It was a very disruptive game, there was no flow to it. We started well then playing as individuals rather than groups.

"It was very frustrating, there was a lot of pushing and pulling at breakdowns. We could have played a lot more simply. Not taking anything away from Southland but they are probably the poorest opposition we have played. We made a lot of unforced errors and turnovers which helped them."

The Lions woke up after an absorbing five minutes of home pressure at the start of the game and when Henson put Geordan Murphy into a good position, Richard Apanui came into a ruck illegally and Ronan O'Gara kicked the penalty.

Henson signalled his desire to make an impression with an early sidestepping run and then crashed through two tackles to score the opening try after 13 minutes.

O'Gara converted a try that proved Henson could offer a physical threat as well as offering running skills and quick hands.

A series of big tackles kept Henson in the spotlight and he was joined by Lewis Moody, coming back from a knee injury. Moody is a Test candidate when fit, but gives away careless penalties which harms his cause.

The Lions were patently too strong up front at the set pieces and offered their backs quality ball that was all too often wasted by careless errors. Southland No8 Paul Miller was barging into any red shirt he could find but it was a lone effort.

The Lions were driving for the line for a second try when Simon Shaw was penalised for leading the charge while not bound to the maul. They were almost immediately made to pay when Southland broke away after a long pass from O'Gara was knocked on and you could sense the frustration mounting in the visiting team.

As a disappointing half headed to a conclusion, the error count became ridiculous. Patently, the role of midweek also rans was affecting their confidence.

Soon after the restart, Welsh scrumhalf Gareth Cooper sent out a dreadful pass that allowed Southland to score their only try as a sustained attack brought a line-out five metres out. A catch and drive left the Lions floundering as flanker Hale T-Pole dived over and Apanui converted to tie the scores 10-10.

The Lions were boosted by the arrival of replacements Andrew Sheridan, Gordon Bulloch, Chris Cusiter and Tom Shanklin and they immediately more potent. A line-out take by Moody saw Henson given the chance to barge over under the posts for his second try which O'Gara converted to offer the hope that more was to come for the 19,200 crowd.

It proved to be a a false dawn as both sides proceeded to prove that knock-ons can be committed with mind numbing regularity no matter how many new men take the pitch.

It was a measure of how jittery the Lions still felt that O'Gara felt the need to add a 61st min penalty that took the visitors into a 20-10 lead.

It was a short lived feeling of being in the comfort zone as Southland took up the challenge once again and stretched the Lions defence to the limit through the outstanding T-Pole.

Henson put in a big hit but didn't use his arms in the tackle and Apanui gratefully accepted the chance to cut the deficit and revive memories triumphs over the Lions in 1950 and 1966.

O'Gara restored the 10-point lead with another penalty and he was one of the few pluses on a desperate night for the tourists.

Apanui offered real hope with a final successful kick but O'Gara responded in the last minute to close out the win with a fourth penalty to add to his two earlier conversions.