Lions have no time for 'sulking about'
Fin Smith says there is no time for "moping" as the British and Irish Lions look to move past Friday's "incredibly disappointing" loss to Argentina. The Lions failed to warm up for their Australian tour in style as the Pumas ran out deserving 28-24 winners at Dublin's Aviva Stadium. Smith said he was "gutted" to start his Lions career with a defeat and knows the onus is on Andy Farrell's side to conjure a strong response when they take on Western Force in Perth on Saturday (11:00 BST). "I'm sure it's not the first time the Lions have not played particularly well in their first outing," said the Northampton Saints and England fly-half. "The main thing is how quickly we can respond and how quickly we can stop feeling sorry for ourselves. We need to get back on the training pitch and get better as quickly as possible."He added: "We need to get back on the horse straight away and have conversations that are going to make us better. That's definitely the aim."
Despite the result, 23-year-old Smith says the formative stages of his Lions career have been "everything I expected and more". "With the scale of it, it really does feel like the pinnacle day to day," he added."It feels incredibly special. It's everything I could have imagined and more."In pulling on the red jersey, Smith followed in the footsteps of his grandfather Tom Elliot with the former Scotland prop having played on the 1955 Lions tour. "Running out, I did acknowledge it was a cool moment for my career," said Smith."And I'm sure I'll go upstairs now and see my family and my girlfriend and it will feel more of a celebration than I'm feeling now. "But you know what it's like, we're all competitive and we all want to win first and foremost more than anything. I'd definitely say I'm not feeling too overwhelmed with joy at the minute."
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