Great Britain hooker Josh Hodgson insists all is not lost as the Lions lick their wounds from a second-straight rugby league Test defeat.
After going down 14-6 to the resurgent Tongans in Hamilton last week and losing 12-8 in the first Test to New Zealand in Auckland on Sunday, Wayne Bennett’s team move on to Christchurch to prepare for Saturday’s second Test against the Kiwis.
That is one of two matches left for the tourists, who have to travel to Port Moresby to face Papua New Guinea on November 16, and NRL star Hodgson says they are improving all the time.
“I thought we were better this week than we were last week and we’ll be looking to be better again next week,” said the Canberra No.9.
“That’s our whole mindset, building on what we’ve been working on. We’re all very competitive people and we want to be the best as a team and we want to be up there.
“We’re not going to be happy playing okay and getting beat, we’re not that kind of team. We’ll regroup and have a look at some things than we could have done a bit better and we’ll go again.”
The teams were level at 2-2 at halftime at Eden Park but the tourists were hit by two tries in six minutes from Jamayne Isaako and Corey Harawira-Naera to go 10 points behind and posed their only real threats when it was too late.
Replacement hooker Daryl Clark went over for a try to give them hope and winger Jermaine McGillvary touched down in the corner four minutes from the end only to lose the ball in Kenny Bromwich’s last-ditch tackle.
“I thought the effort again was fantastic and our completion rate was really high but we didn’t throw enough at them,” Hodgson said.
“We’re working on combinations and things we want to do in the future moving forward with Great Britain and England too. We’re building something but the result is very disappointing.
“I thought we tried our hearts out and we’re heading in the right direction but it still doesn’t make the feeling any better.
Hodgson joined in the single-referee debate after Super League official Chris Kendall came in for criticism for a slow play-the-ball in the game at Eden Park.
The matches are being played under international rules and Hodgson has some sympathy with calls to implement the dual-referee system that operates in the NRL.
“Referees have a tough job but at the same time it was so slow, for both teams,” said Hodgson.
“I’m not having a whinge because we’ve lost, I thought both teams were trying to capitalise on slowing the ruck speed down.”
