'I was ready to go into extra-time', says Warburton

Lions captain Sam Warburton has admitted a drawn Lions Test series was a “strange” sensation.

Warburton’s Lions and Kieran Read’s All Blacks drew 15-15 apiece at Eden Park, meaning the series was shared 1-1. And while the Test match itself was one of the classics, there was a general feeling of disappointment at the inconclusive nature of a shared series.

“It’s a difficult one. It’s a stange feeling, but it’s better than losing,” said Warburton. “To be honest I’m a bit speechless. I’m not really sure what to make of that. I was ready to go into extra-time. I guess when you come to play the double world champions, with what they’ve done over the last eight years has been incredible, so to come here and not get beaten is incredible and we can take some credit for that.”

Depsite only managing to draw the series, Warburton was full of praise for his squad as they managed to hold the double world champions to a draw.

“We knew the challenge coming into this. We had six to eight weeks to become the best team in the world and we had to beat outright the best team (in th world) in New Zealand, because they’ve been backing it up for years,” said Warburton. “So we can take some positives from getting a draw. But obviously as players we’re disappointed not get the win.”

The flanker pointe to discipline and pressure in the opposition half as some of the better aspects to the Lions performance as they won the second half 9-3.

“I think our discipline is a bit better this week. That was something we had to work on,” said Warburton. “We went through phases, we were putting some pressure on the All Blacks so we were just trying to get some territory and stay down, which when we did we made it quite difficult for them to get out of their half.

“I was chatting to Kieran Read with three minutes to go and he said, “Wow, this is rugby,” and he was right, it was a great game to play in. There’s a lot of respect from both teams.

“There is no individual accolade as captain. It wouldn’t have mattered if I was captain or any of the other 40 guys. We’ve all been driving the same thing.”

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