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For 62 minutes the Lions led the All Blacks, but the tourists woke up enough to secure a narrow 41-35 victory at Ellis Park on Tuesday night. For much of this encounter New Zealand looked like they were hungover after their Test victory here three days earlier, though only three of their bench had taken part in their win over the Springboks. The trio — Peter Lakai, Kyle Preston and Anton Lienert-Brown — were on the field 10 minutes into the second half. The tourists looked like they were on the training ground for much of the first half, throwing the ball around with little sense of purpose or worry about danger. Every now and then they showed flashes of All Blackness, but for much of this contest the Lions were competitive and looking dangerous. The home side was fired up, hitting the tourists with two quick tries at the beginning of the first half, capitalising on two mistakes by visiting scrumhalf Noah Hotham. A box kick drifted directly into touch early on, giving the Lions a good attacking platform and they pushed their way closer to the tryline before Nico Steyn went over. Hotham’s second error was more direct, his delayed pass being intercepted by flanker Siba Mahashe who dotted down himself. And when the crowd of 15,900 roared the home team on, they sounded more like 50,000. The Lions also went over for two quick tries after the restart for a 35-17 lead, but that 18-point gap seemed to finally awake the struggling giants of world rugby from their slumber and they struck with three tries to finally take a one-point lead. Rieko Ioane scored two of them, one following a great break and the other an intercept. Emoni Narawa’s final try at the end gave New Zealand a six-point victory. The Lions often beat the Kiwis at their own game, getting to the breakdown quickly and winning several penalties for holding. Scorers: Lions 35 (21) Tries: Nico Steyn, Siba Mahashe, Kelly Mpeku, Erich Cronje, Francke Horn, Conversions: Chris Smith (5) New Zealand 41 (17) Tries: Noah Hotham, Emoni Narawa (2), Ethan Blackadder (2), Rieko Ioane (2), Conversions: Beauden Barrett, Richie Ma’unga (2)