A gutsy Lions team, still reeling from the shock death of star lock Hyron Andrews earlier on their European tour, gave it their all before they slipped to a 29-20 defeat against the Glasgow Warriors on Friday, the Scottish side's SA-born coach Franco Smith said.
Smith said he had expected a tough game against the Lions who scored three second-half tries in an enthralling United Rugby Championship clash at the Scotstoun Stadium.
The Lions' tries were scored by Morne van den Berg, Siba Mahashe and Morne Brandon.
Though happy with the win, Smith said his Warriors side had plenty of work to do over the November break.
“I expected it to be a fight from the start,” Smith said.
“The Lions rolled out a classy outfit, and I don’t think they were missing many players.
“They’ve had a disappointing and emotional trip, and I’m sure the Lions players decided to give it one more go on this trip.
"So I was absolutely not surprised by the effort from them.
“We gave away that sequence of penalties [when the Lions scored their tries], went offside and then straight after the maul penalty, they kicked to the corner.
“We should have stopped it better because that led to the try in the end.
"That’s work for us, so that we don’t give away maul tries. The Lions did a great job there.
“Then, from the restart, it starts again: chase it down and that’s what we did.
"We just got the ball back and made the most of that next opportunity.”
Smith said several of his players would now join the Scotland squad for the Nations Championship.
“The players who aren’t involved will have a proper break of three weeks," he said.
"Then we’ll get together with enough time to prepare for the first game, against Benetton here on December 5.
“The boys who aren’t going to be involved have started earlier and worked hard in the preseason.
"They deserve a break now and then we’ll come back and, with these results, be able to manage our squad into the Six Nations.”
Tries from player-of-the-match Fergus Watson, Dan Lancaster, Jack Singleton and Ollie Smith gave the hosts a bonus-point triumph to cap an unbeaten first block of fixtures.
Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen said it had been a tough European tour for his team.
“It was an incredibly difficult tour in the bigger scheme of things,” he said.
“The character we showed during the La Rochelle and Glasgow games is something we are proud of.
“The Edinburgh game week was exceptionally tough mentally and, unfortunately, it showed a bit in the game.
“Throughout the three weeks, the management was truly unbelievable.
"We are truly blessed to have incredible people in our team.
“We are going to rest for two weeks, then straight into two weeks of preparation before we take on the Bulls in early December.
Glasgow 29: Tries Fergus Watson, Dan Lancaster, Jack Singelton, Ollie Smith. Conversions: George Horne (3). Penalty: Horne.
Lions 20: Tries: Morne van den Berg, Siba Mahashe, Morne Brandon. Conversion: Boeta Chamberlain. Penalty: Chris Smith.
Other scores: Stormers 33 Ulster 7, Bulls 54 Scarlets 26, Munster 3 Sharks 15.
