FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED: Hogg is a fine fly-half, the set piece is wobbling and the Lions will raise their game in Tests

The British and Irish Lions wracked up another tour victory with a 64-0 win over a Combined Country XV. Here are five things we learned from the game... 

THE LIONS HAVE AN OBSSESSION WITH FIRST PHASE

Coming into this match, the Lions had scored seven of their 18 tries off first-phase ball, which is fine against Super Rugby and invitational opponents, but you're not going to do it very often in a Test match. One try was created when Justin Tipuric came in at fly-half and Stuart Hogg played inside centre off a ruck, another try was scored off a lineout move that Hogg called, but in general there was a rush to try to cross the tryline instead of patiently building play. Against the Wallabies the Lions will need to suck defenders in towards the breakdown to create the space out wide for their giant wingers and deadly finishers.

THE LIONS WILL RAISE THEIR GAME AGAINST BETTER OPPOSITION

With all due respect to nine amateur rugby players and six professionals who put their heart and soul on the line, it was a lesson for the Lions about not getting sucked down to the level of your opponents. Admittedly, it is a fairly redundant lesson, because they will raise their game against Australia. When the Lions renegotiate the deals of these tours with the SANZAR nations the quality of the opposition must be top of the agenda. When the Lions themselves were tinkers and tailors this was a romantic fixture - now the Lions are a professional juggernaut it is a waste of time.

IT COULD BE ROOKIE v ROOKIE AT FLY-HALF

Jonathan Sexton and Owen Farrell missed training earlier this week and are nursing a tight hamstring and a dead leg respectively. For somebody who hasn't played a game at fly-half since he was at school, it was some debut from Stuart Hogg. He seems fearless in attack, happy to stand so flat that scum-half Conor Murray was nearly throwing forward passes. Australia are expected to start rookie fly-half James O'Connor against him - so we could have rookie versus rookie at some point in this Test series.
WATCH THE BALL, CATCH THE BALL

Warren Gatland's teams play an ambitious, running game and the Lions are clearly looking to offload in the tackle and create problems for any defence with hard running and quick handling. The tourists may have had the bulk of possession (and there may have been a lot of dew on the turf) but there is no excuse for a final handling error tally of 5-13. The basic skill level will be the biggest disappointment for Gatland and his coaching staff.

THE SET PIECE IS WOBBLING

There is only so much you can learn about the tight five at the scrum when you're packing against electricians and carpenters, but the lineout was not clean enough. Rory Best was originally left out the squad - ostensibly because Gatland did not trust his accuracy at the lineout - and Richard Hibbard had similar wobbles with his throwing which let the Countries XV off the hook. Top of the agenda for Saturday's match against the Waratahs will be to sort out the lineout.