The result and winner was never really in doubt in Newcastle on Tuesday night - a XV of mainly amateur players and bench Super rugby players who call the likes of Orange and Charters Towers home was never going to challenge the cream of the crop from the United Kingdom, Ireland and the odd New Zealander and Pacific Islander.
Indeed, it was that odd New Zealander, Sean Maitland, who aspires to be as Scottish as Groundskeeper Willie who was one of the stars on a rainy night in the Hunter Valley alongside Irish stars young and old, Sean O'Brien and Brian O'Driscoll.
The Lions performance while great in the first half, probably was a bit disappointing in a second half where they were expected to double their score - poor ball handling and some interesting calls from referee Steve Walsh meant the score was kept to 64.
One positive was that the Lions defence was strong and kept an opposing side in Australia scoreless for the first time since 1989 when the Lions held Western Australia scoreless.
There were many other positives as well - no major injuries picked up this time and genuine competition for spots as well as the emergence of Scotsman utility back, Stuart Hogg as a viable first five option to Jonny Sexton and Owen Farrell. Flanker options look pretty strong with O'Brien pushing the Welsh quartet of Tipuric, Warburton, Faletau and Lydiate hard for a spot in the 23.
So the Waratahs are up next and this shapes up to be the dress rehearsal for the Lions going into the 1st test in Brisbane next Saturday night. On this performance, we may see quite a few from this team feature heavily during the test series against the Wallabies.
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