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Rennie admits All Blacks were ‘under a bit of heat’ in nervy Lions win REACTION: All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie praised his side’s composure and character after they held their nerve to grind out a hard-fought 41-35 victory over the Lions at Ellis Park on Tuesday. New Zealand trailed the Lions 17-35 early in the second half but showed class and scored four unanswered tries, sealing another victory in the Greatest Rivalry series to remain unbeaten. The clash was the All Blacks’ final match against a South African franchise, having already defeated the Stormers, Sharks and Bulls in recent weeks. It was also their toughest franchise outing, with the Lions giving the Kiwis a run for their money as they played with intensity and showed fight in all areas of the game. The All Blacks, however, capitalised on several turnovers and punished the Lions as the home side began to run out of steam in the latter stages. After the match, Rennie acknowledged that the Lions had put his side under pressure for large periods of the contest, particularly at the start of each half. “The Lions got off to a flyer at the start of both halves,” Rennie said in his assessment of the match. “I think our boys showed a lot of character to fight our way back into that; we created so many opportunities. If you look at the numbers, we dominated defenders beaten, line breaks, and offloads and so on. “You’ve got to give credit to the Lions; they came to play tonight, they got the crowd into the game. “At 35-17, we were under a bit of heat, so I was really pleased with the composure and our ability to grind out that last sort of 30 minutes and finish in front.” The story continues below… Rennie, who was not particularly happy with how his side attacked on the night, did see a silver lining in the performance. He selected a relatively inexperienced side, with a handful of seasoned campaigners including captain Patrick Tuipulotu, Anton Lienert-Brown, Beauden Barrett and Richie Mo’unga. Beyond those big names, the side lacked Test experience, and Rennie believes his young players will take valuable lessons from the hard-fought victory. “We had quite a few Test caps on the park, there were a few experienced guys and then a lot of young men who have played one, two or three games for New Zealand,” he added. “We’re going to learn a lot from that; the fact that we had to dig deep tonight is important. “We were hoping to not put Xavia [Numia] on, so we put him on at the 71st minute, and his scrummaging was pretty pivotal late in the game.” The All Blacks were also guilty of playing into the Lions’ hands at times and lacked the accuracy in crucial moments. Rennie put that down to his side overplaying their hand rather than using the space available to put the Lions under pressure. “I thought we were mixed; I thought there were times where we tried to play too much. “There was a lot of space to kick that would’ve put them under a lot of pressure, and they would probably kick it back to us, and we’d get a chance to counter. “They kicked more than us and benefited from that. When it went to 35-17, we scored another four tries after that; I think we controlled the last 30 reasonably well, just not as clinical as we need to be.” Register your interest to receive priority updates on RWC27 ticket releases. Don't miss out, stay in the loop!